New Home, New Life
by Dragon Star Empress
Summary: When Bonnie grows up and has to get rid of Woody and the gang what will happen to them when their new owner finds out that they're alive. Slight spoilers for Toy Story 3.
1. Chapter 1

After watching Toy Story 3 this idea that I had way back when the first movie came out, popped into my head so I decided to look and see if anyone else had done anything similar and was surprised when I didn't find anything. Oh well I don't have time for more stories, I have way too many started already, anyways it's just an idea for how the story would end not a full plot, maybe it's something I could write in the future, or at least that's what I thought until a full fledge plot bunny started forming and chewing on my brain and I somehow ended up with the first few chapters written in less than a week, while getting ready for the community yard sale, which brings up an interesting event, but I'll save that story for the chapter I was writing when it happened.

* * *

"Well that's the last box that's going to fit in the attic, the rest of this stuff is going to have to go with you or out for the yard sale."

"You're sure there's not room for another box?" Bonnie asked.

"Sorry honey, but everything is packed in tight up there and with grandma moving in with us as soon as you leave for collage I won't have room to store them anywhere else. Anyways all that's left are these old toys, it's not like you'll ever play with them again."

"Yeah, I guess you're right mom." Bonnie agreed as she closed the box and carried it outside where they were setting up a yard sale.

"No, no we're going to all get separated if she puts us out at the yard sale." Jessie sobbed.

"Maybe someone will buy all of use." Buzz suggested as he hugged her and tried to comfort her.

"Buzz is right, we've been in rough scrapes before and we've stayed together this long." Woody added.

"Maybe you, Bullseye and I, but what are the chance of someone wanting us and Buzz?" Jessie asked.

Woody remained silent for moment, knowing that she was right, his heart breaking for her, knowing himself how hard it was to lose someone you love so much, "We'll get through this, somehow everything thing will be alright." he said, trying to convince himself of that as well.

As the day went by Jessie and Buzz stayed huddled in one corner of the box, determined to spend every last second of their time together in each others arms.

Finally it happened, a woman looked into the box and a grin spread across her face as she reached in to pick Jessie up, for a second Jessie and Buzz clung to each other, "I'll always love you." Buzz whispered into Jessie's ear before reluctantly letting go.

The woman picked up Woody and Bullseye then went to pay for.

When she got home she pulled out a box and started to carefully pack the three toys into it until she found out she had run out of tape, "Oh well, I guess I'll just have to pick up tape in the morning before I send you to grandma." she said as she pushed the box to the back of the kitchen counter and left.

"Why do you think she would send us to her grandmother? Old humans don't play with toys, what if she'll just stuff us in a box and leave us there?" Jessie asked, a hint of panic in her voice.

"Maybe she's a collector like Al and the museum that was going to buy us before. I doubt we'd end up in storage." Woody said resting a comforting hand on Jessie's shoulder.

"I guess you're right." Jessie agreed, "But what about Buzz? What if someone mean get's him, like that kid you guys told me about? What if they hurt him?" she cried absently pulling on her braid.

"He's pretty tough and if he does end up in a situation like that I'm sure he'd find a way out and then he'd probably come looking for you." Woody told her as he pulled her into his arms and held her as she cried.

"We're being sent away, maybe to the other side of the country, he'd never find us. I- I'll never see him again."

"You never know, we've done some pretty impossible things before. At least we still have each other, we're not completely alone." Woody said as Bullseye came over and curled up next to Jessie.

"And Buzz is all alone, he doesn't have anyone." Jessie said as she turned and buried her face against Bullseye's side until she finally cried herself to sleep.

Woody woke up later that night to find Jessie gone, "Where did Jessie go?" he asked Bullseye.

Bullseye stood up and whinnied and looked over the edge of the box. Jessie was sitting on a windowsill above the kitchen sink, nestled between a couple of flower pots.

Woody climbed out of the box and up onto the windowsill next to her, "Are you alright?" he asked.

"I just can't stop thinking about Buzz, what's happening to him? Is he safe, is he still sitting in that box waiting for someone to buy him, is he scared, does he miss me as much as I miss him? Will I always miss him this much, will being away from him always hurt this much?" Jessie asked, never turning her eyes away from the stars outside.

Woody sighed and sat down next to her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders, "You'll always miss him and he'll always miss you and it will always hurt, but eventually it won't hurt as badly." he told her.

"Do you-" Jessie stopped as a car pulled into the driveway and two men got out.

"Quick, back to the box." Woody said, jumping down to the counter and helping Jessie down.

They had just pulled the flaps back down on the box when one of the men broke the window out of the door, "This can't be good." Woody whispered as he and Jessie watched the men come in.


	2. Chapter 2

Emily woke up around midnight to what sounded like glass breaking downstairs, "Florida James if you just broke another one of my vases you're going to start sleeping outside." she muttered as she dragged herself out of bed.

When she got downstairs and flipped the light on her heart stopped, the window on the back door had been busted out and the door was standing open. The floor creaked behind her and Emily spun around as the stairway door slammed behind her and a man stepped out of the laundry room behind it.

"What do you want?" she asked trying not to let on how terrified she was.

"Money, valuables, the usual." the man said as he took a step closer to her.

"And a little fun." another man said suddenly coming up behind her and grabbing her arms and pinning them behind her.

Emily swiftly swung both feet up, using the man who was holding her arms to brace her as she slammed her feet into the other man's chest, knocking him back into the laundry room. The force of the movement also knocked the man who was holding her off balance enough for her to get loose.

She scrambled over between the table and counters, grabbing a large skillet out of the dish drainer as she went. She was about to make a run for the front door when the second man said, "Don't even think about it." as he pulled out a gun, aiming it at her as he started to move towards her and the other man moved to block the way to the front door.

Out of the corner of her eye Emily noticed something move on the counter and a glass jar crashed to the floor next to the man, distracting him enough for her to swing the skillet at his hand and knock the gun onto the counter. She swung the skillet back into the side of the man's head, he dropped to the ground, seemingly unconscious and Emily made a dash around him towards the door, but he suddenly grabbed her ankle, making her fall. Before she could even try to get up both men were pinning her down.

"You're going to pay for causing us so much trouble." the first man said.

"Go get some rope, we don't want her trying to get away again." the second man said to the other.

"Reach for the sky."

Both men jumped at the sound of the unexpected voice, "It's just a stupid toy." the first said glancing at Woody who was sitting on the counter next to the gun.

"Well forget the toy and go get that rope." the other man said as Emily continued to struggle, "And give me my gun."

"Let her go, now." Woody said, still not moving.

"It's programmed to say that right?" the first man said.

"Of course it is, now hurry up."

As the man started to reach for the gun Woody grabbed it and, with a little effort to get it upright, aimed it him, "I said let her go." Woody repeated.

The first man stumbled backwards, bumping into the table then took off out the door, screaming something about possessed toys as he went.

"Where the hell are you going?" the second man yelled after him, "Don't even think about moving." he told Emily as he stood up, keeping one foot braced on her back.

As soon as his weight was off of her Emily rolled, nearly making the man fall as she struggled to her feet, before she could get more than a few steps the man grabbed her by the hair and slammed her back against the fridge, suddenly holding a large pocket knife to her throat.

"I think someone needs to teach you how to listen." he said.

"Funny I was just thinking the same thing about you." Woody said, still sitting, unmoving on the counter although he turned to aim the gun at the man.

"What are you some type of ventriloquist, you know how to throw your voice, something like that?" the man asked, "Nice trick But it won't save you."

Emily ignored him as she felt something crawl onto her arm from the counter next to the fridge and up the inside of her robe sleeve to her neck, "As soon as he moves his arm drop to the floor." a voice whispered into her ear.

Emily barely had time to wonder who or what was talking to her when something brown jumped off of the counter landing on the man's arm, he let out a startled cry and started trying to get the thing off. As soon as he did Emily dropped to the floor, a split second later a gunshot rang out and the man let out a pained yelp.

Emily quickly crawled to the other side of the kitchen and looked towards the counter in time to see Woody, apparently knocked to the back of the counter by the recoil of the gun. He quickly struggled to reposition the gun as the man turned to face him.

"Get out of here, or next time I aim for your head." Woody threatened as he finally got the gun aimed.

The man's eyes went wide, his face turning white as he quickly took off out the door.

Emily slid down the wall to sit on the floor, her heart pounding and hands shaking.

"Its alright, your safe now." Jessie said as she slid down her arm to stand by her knee.

Emily stared at her for a long moment, "You're toys, how is this possible?" she asked.

"It just is, humans aren't supposed to know though, so if you could avoid telling anyone about us we'd really appreciate it. We just couldn't sit there and do nothing." Woody said as he walked over to her.

"Okay, I can keep a secret, not that anyone would believe me anyways. Thank you, thank you so much." Emily said as tears began to run down her face.

Jessie climbed up onto Emily's knee and started gently stroking her hand, "It's alright now, you're safe and we're not going to let anyone hurt you." she told her.

After taking a few minutes to calm down and stop crying Emily got up and set Jessie, Woody and Bullseye back on the counter next to the box they had been in, "You three should stay in the box for now, I need to call the police and let them know what happened." she told them.

"Alright, but once they leave if you need anything you just let us know." Jessie told her, stroking her hand comfortingly a few more time before climbing back into the box.

"Thanks." Emily said before starting to leave to call the police, she stopped for a second, picking up the gun that was still laying on the counter, figuring if she told the police that she had shot the man in self defense and then her finger prints weren't on the gun it could cause problems for her and the toys.

"You were pretty good at getting her calmed down." Woody said as they sat in the box waiting for the police to arrive.

"Yeah, I always wished I could really comfort my Emily when she was upset and, well, something about this lady just reminds me of her." Jessie told him.

"Okay guys the police are gone." Emily said opening the box, "There's an officer outside to keep an eye on things incase those guys decide to come back, he may come in to use the bathroom down here, but there's no reason to keep you cramped up in that box, there's plenty of room upstairs."

"Thank goodness, I can't stand being in boxes." Jessie said popping her head up out of the box.

Emily carried them upstairs and set the box on a desk in her room that sat in front of a large window, "I hope this will do for tonight, I rarely use the other rooms up here so they're all dusty, I'll clean one out for you guys tomorrow." Emily told them.

"I thought you were going to send us away." Woody said.

"I was, my grandmother collects Woody's roundup stuff, but now that I know you're alive and you saved my life I can't just send you away to spend who knows how long, stuck in a glass display case, I can't imagine that would be a very pleasant life. I have plenty of room here, unless there's somewhere else you'd rather go." Emily said.

"No, I think this would be fine for us." Woody said.

"Fine? Would you look at this view, it's perfect." Jessie said from where she was looking out the window at the fields and pasture land dotted with large forested areas as far as the eye could see.

"Well then I'll let you pick out a room tomorrow and we'll get it cleaned out for you. Tonight though I need to get some sleep." Emily said.

It was nearly six am when Emily's eyes flew open, her heart pounding and hands shaking as she woke from a nightmare of the break in. She buried her face into the pillow and cried until she felt a small hand touch her arm.

"You okay?" Woody asked.

"Yeah, it was just a nightmare." she replied wiping the tears from her face, "I'm so grateful that you helped me, do toys often help people?" she asked.

"Not so openly, usually just subtle little things, moving something that was missing where it'll be found, little things like that, nothing that would really hint at our being alive. But Bonnie, our previous owner had a friend who was raped a couple of years ago, Bonnie was her closest friend and the one she turned to when she needed someone to talk to and we overheard a lot of it. When those men attacked you Jessie and I knew we had to do something to stop them." Woody explained.

"That poor girl." Emily said then glanced around, "Where is Jessie?" she asked when she didn't see her nearby.

"She's been by the window since you went to sleep." Woody replied.

Emily looked over and could see Jessie sitting with her knees pulled up, her arms wrapped around them and her face buried against them, she could just make out slight movements of her shoulders that looked as if she was crying. "Is she alright?" she asked.

"She will be, she just misses Buzz, it's never easy losing friends and loved ones when you're passed to a new owner." Woody said.

"Who was Buzz?" Emily asked.

"He was my best friend and Jessie's boyfriend for a long time." Woody replied.

"You mean the Buzz Lightyear that was in the box with you guys?" Emily asked.

"Yes, we'd been together through two owners." Woody replied then was suddenly pounced on by a large white and gray cat.

"Florida, get off of him!" Emily ordered as she sat up and pulled the cat off of Woody, "Sorry about that, he can get a little hyper." she said.

"It's alright." Woody said standing back up and straitening his hat.

"Well aren't you just the cutest thing ever." Jessie said jumping onto the bed and scratching Florida's chin.

Emily smiled, glad to see Jessie not looking so depressed anymore, "This is Florida, or Florida James when he's in trouble." she told them, "I have some running to do this morning, do you guys think you can handle him while I'm gone or should I lock him up until I get back?" she asked.

"Oh I'm sure we'll get along just fine." Jessie replied, "Isn't that right? We're going to be the best of friends aren't we Florida?" she said scratching behind his ears as he started to purr.

"Alright, well I'll be back later, you three should probably stay up here until the officer leaves." Emily said before heading down stairs.

Emily sat down at the kitchen table and started to eat a bowl of cereal while staring at the broken window in the door, _"I think I've had enough excitement to last me the rest of my life." _she thought, _"survived the most terrifying night of my life and rescued by talking, living toys."_ she stopped eating for a moment as the she realized how insane the idea of living toys seemed, _"that's impossible and completely crazy, toys don't just come to life, people would have found out by now. Maybe I really did shoot that guy and couldn't deal with the thought of hurting another human being and my mind was playing tricks on me to help me deal with it. That's got to be it, toys don't just come to life." _she assured herself as she got up and headed back upstairs.

When she got back upstairs she found Jessie sitting by the window with Florida at her side and Woody on the floor throwing a pencil that Bullseye would then fetch and bring back to him.

"You alright?" Woody asked when he noticed her standing in the doorway just staring at them.

"Either I have living toys in my house or I've totally lost my mind." Emily replied.

"Told ya she hadn't fully realized what was going on yet." Jessie said to Woody.

"Yeah, I think I was too freaked out about those guys breaking in for it to register how insane this is." Emily replied as she picked up Bullseye, who had come over and started running around her feet, she held him up in front of her face and looked at him, "This is really real, you're really alive, I'm not just losing my mind?" she asked and Bullseye suddenly stretched out his neck and licked her cheek.

"Yes we're really alive and you're not losing your mind." Woody told her.

"Okay one more question, is Bullseye a horse who acts like a puppy or a puppy that looks like a horse?" she asked as she set him down.

"He's a horse with the playfulness and loyalty of a puppy." Woody replied.


	3. Chapter 3

As soon as Emily finished eating breakfast and getting dressed she left. A short while later she pulled up in front of the same yard sale she had stopped at the day before, saying a quick prayer that Buzz would still be there she got out of her car.

As she approached the sale a young boy was digging through the box of toys then ran over to his mother who was looking at stuff on a table on the other side of the yard, "Mommy there's an astronaut toy in that box of toys, it's only two dollars and it's laser and talking buttons still work, can I get it? Pretty please?" he pleaded.

Emily sped up and barely even slowed down as she grabbed the whole box of toys, glancing down to make sure Buzz really was there along with a Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head, a slinky dog and a Tyrannosaurus toy.

When she walked up to the woman running the sale she asked, "Would you take five dollars for the box of toys? I'm a teacher and I'm sure my kids would love these to play with when they can't go outside for recess."

"Sure., anything for bored kids" the woman agreed.

Emily let out a relived sigh as she set the box in her car and stared at the toys for a long moment. They all looked like perfectly normal, inanimate toys. "This is absolutely insane." she said before starting the car.

Once she got home she took Buzz and put him in a smaller box, closed it then stuck it back in with the other toys and took them upstairs. When she got to her room Jessie was curled up on the bed with Florida, absently petting him as she starred sadly out the window.

"How is she doing?" Emily quietly asked Woody who was sitting on the desk with Bullseye.

"She's depressed, but she's strong, she'll pull through it, I hope." he replied.

"Maybe she just needs something to cheer her up." Emily said as she walked over to the bed and set the box on the floor then pulled out the smaller one she had put Buzz in and set it on the bed.

"What's that?" Jessie asked.

"Well you seemed kind of sad so I got you a little surprise to cheer you up." Emily replied.

Jessie stepped forward and opened the box, her eyes getting wide, "Buzz, is it really you?" she asked.

"Jessie what are you doing there's a huma-" Buzz was swiftly cut off as Jessie lunged at him.

"It's you, it's really, really you!" Jessie said excitedly as she threw her arms around his neck and started kissing him.

A minute or so later Jessie finally let go of Buzz, leaving him looking rather dazed, but smiling, as she bounded over to hug Emily's hand, "Thank you, thank you so much." she said.

"It was the least I could do after you saved my life." Emily replied.

"Would someone please explain to me what is going on here, why are we talking to a human?" Buzz asked.

"Because a couple of men broke in last night and Jessie and I couldn't just sit by and do nothing, so we helped her out and she found out about us. In the end I think things turned out rather nicely, don't you?" Woody asked as he walked over towards Buzz.

"I don't think things could have possibly worked out better." Jessie said as she tackled Buzz again.

"Now what about these guys." Emily asked as she pulled the others out of the box and set them on the bed.

Once they had all been introduced and the situation explained, Emily said, "Now why don't you all climb into the box and I'll show you the other rooms and you can pick one out."

"You're going to give us one whole room, just for us toys?" Mr. Potato Head asked.

"Yep, I don't use most of them anyways, there's six bedrooms upstairs and two more downstairs, I use the two downstairs as a library and sewing room, but the only room I use up here is the one I sleep in, so I've got five rooms that just sit empty." Emily explained.

"How on earth did you end up living all alone in such a huge house." Mrs. Potato Head asked as Emily started to carry the box full of toys to the other rooms.

"My great, great grandparents had ten kids, so they needed a big house, they left the farm to my grandmother when they died. When she moved into the other half of a duplex my uncle owns, she gave me the farm because she knew how much I loved it here." Emily explained.

After they had looked at all of the rooms and picked out one with a nice view, Emily asked, "So what else do you guys need or want? This room is pretty boring right now." she said, looking around the room which only had a bed and night stand in it.

"Do you have any games we could keep in here to play?" Slinky asked.

"Or any video games?" Rex asked.

"I don't have any video games, but I've got a few board and card games downstairs and I think I saw a couple of boxes of games and puzzles up in the attic, although it may take me a while to find them." Emily replied.

"We could go up and try looking for them." Woody offered.

"Okay." Emily said as they all climbed back into the box and she carried them up to the attic, "I'll come back in about half an hour, after I take care of my horses, to see if you need any help."

"You have horses, can I come with you?" Jessie asked.

"Maybe next time, the officer is still sitting in the driveway and I wouldn't want him asking why I'm taking you out with me, but as soon as he leaves I'll take you out to meet them." Emily replied.

"Great." Jessie said then fell silent as she glanced around the attic.

"What is it Jessie?" Buzz asked.

"This place, it just, it seems so familiar, the rooms, this attic, its like I've been here before." she replied.

"It's a fairly common house plan in the area, there are several houses here and in the surrounding counties that had the same basic layout and were built by the same builders." Emily told her.

I think my first owner must have gone to one of those house, it would explain why it feels so familiar." Jessie said.

"Well you guys have fun, I'll be back up later." Emily said setting the box down quickly then headed downstairs when someone knocked at the door.

When Emily got to the door an officer was standing there, "Well ma'am you won't have to worry about either of those men bothering you again, we identified, located and arrested the man who ran away, we'll just need you to come down to the station to make a positive ID. The other man we found in an abandoned house on the next road, you got in a good shot, went right through his lung, he probably didn't survive very long." he told her.

"He's dead?" Emily asked stunned.

"Yes, and don't you be feeling guilty about it. Personally I think it's a good thing, we've been after this guy for a long time, we knew he'd killed people before, but we've never had any concrete proof that it was him, just a witnesses word against his and he always had a few people who said they had been with him at the time of the crimes, although we suspected they were being paid to say that." he replied.

"Well then I'm glad he can't hurt anyone else. Thank you for letting me know." Emily replied.

Once the officer left, Emily took care of her horses then headed back to the attic. When she got there she found all of the toys trying to entertain a few dozen two inch tall babies, "Oh you guys found my Quints." she said, grinning as one little boy grabbed Woody's hat, put it on then ran off giggling. Nearby Bullseye was slowly walking around with five more on his back while Jessie stayed by his side making sure none of them fell off.

"How many of these kids do you have?" Mr. Potato Head asked holding one in each arm as they took turns pulling on his mustache.

"Oh I think I had four or five sets of five and then several more partial sets." Emily replied.

"Well I think they're absolutely adorable." Mrs. Potato Head said, cuddling three in her arms, "It's so nice to have little ones around again."

"How did you end up with so many?" Buzz asked as one pushed the button to make his laser light up.

"I really wanted them when I was a kid, even sold a bunch of my other toys so I could get my first set, since then I still, to this day will pick them up if I see them at yard sales." Emily replied.

"And we're all very grateful to you for bringing us all together and keeping us together and safe." a young girl who stood about five inches tall, with a pink ribbon in her blond hair said.

"Yeah, although that box was kind of cramped with all of us in there." an identical girl with a blue ribbon added.

"Oh I'm so sorry about that, if I had had any idea you were alive I never would have just left you like that." Emily said.

"It's okay, at least we're out now and we won't have to go back in the box since you know we're alive, right?" a third girl with a purple ribbon asked.

Emily smiled, "Of course not, you can stay in the room with the other toys. Or you could have your own room." she added as she watched two of the quints race off with Mr. Potato Head's mustache as he chased after them, "I could get out your house and all your stuff and set it up for you."

"That would be great, it would be so nice to be able to use our stuff again and I'm sure the other toys don't want to have to constantly be entertaining the babies." another girl with a blue ribbon and black hair said as she and her two identical sisters caught the quints who had run off with Mr. Potato Head's mustache and gave it back to him.

"Oh we wouldn't mind sharing a room with all these adorable babies." Mrs. Potato Head said.

Mr. Potato Head shot Emily a desperate pleading glance, "Well it would give the rest of you somewhere to get some peace and quite if they're in a separate room and you can go play with them whenever you want to, I'm sure the cousins would appreciate the help." Emily said.

"We can usually handle them, although it is nice to have some help. Are the Rose Petal dolls still around? They always got along well with the quints." one of the cousins said.

"They should be, I'll have to look for them, I know I didn't get rid of them so I'm sure they're around here somewhere." Emily replied, "I'll get the games and all of your stuff downstairs and out of the way up here then look for them.

By that evening Emily had set up all of the Quints and Quints Cousins stuff, had found the Rose Petal dolls as well as several Barbies, who all decided to stay in the room with the quints, which Emily had started calling the doll room. In the other room she had set up the games as well as an old racecar track and a few cars to go with it, one of which Jessie was using as a skate board.

"You know what we need for this room?" Jessie said.

"What?" Emily asked.

"A stunt track, with a nice jump on it and maybe a loop." Jessie said, "Do you think there's anything like that up in the attic?"

"I don't know, but it's possible, who knows what all is up there, with the way this place has been handed down from one generation to the next there's probably stuff up there that belongs to everyone who ever lived here, I'm sure there must be more toys up there." Emily told her.

* * *

So does everyone remember me mentioning the community yard sale when I posted the first chapter? Well this is the chapter I was writing on that day, less than two hours after writing the scene about the Quints I had walked around to some of the other sales and found one poor lonely Quint in with a bunch of other toys, she's now happily playing with all my other Quints. I just thought it was interesting that so soon after writing that scene I found one when it's been years since I've been able to find any.

And yes including the Quints the way I did is technically a mistake since they were around in the early nineties, the story is supposed to take place fourteen or fifteen years after the third movie, around 2025 or so and Emily is only supposed to be in her early to mid 20's, but the Quints were my favorite toys when I was a kid and I couldn't resist including them, plus who wouldn't want to see the gang trying to handle several dozen babies?

If anyone has ideas for scenes let me know, from here on out I've got stuff planned for Buzz, Jessie and Woody, but should probably ad some more scenes with the other toys.

Also if I get at least 15 reviews on this chapter I'll post the next chapter (where I'll be introducing a new, but familiar character) as soon as I get that many, instead of waiting until next Saturday.


	4. Chapter 4

The next day Emily, Woody, Jessie and Buzz spent most of the day up in the attic looking for other toys, they had already found a large old doll house built by her great, great grandfather that Emily had put in the doll room. It was a nearly perfect replica of her house with hinges on one side so it could be opened up, although Emily had decided to leave it closed to offer the dolls who would be living in it a little more privacy.

They had also found a record player and some records that Woody and Jessie had asked her to put in the toy room for them.

"Okay guys one more box and then I have to go take care of my horses." Emily said as she pulled out another box and started to open it.

"I get to come help you this time, right?" Jessie asked.

"Of course." Emily replied then grinned when she saw what was in the box.

"What is it? What's in there?" Jessie asked jumping up onto a box next to the one Emily was looking at, although she was still too low to see into it.

"Grandma always said she thought her cousin had left some of this stuff here." Emily said as she held up a Woody's Roundup record.

"Yee hah we got our selves some good music now." Jessie said excitedly as she jumped off of the box she was on and ran over to the record player to plug the speakers in while Woody disappeared behind a pile of boxes with the plug and a moment later the power came on.

"Come on let's hear some good old music." Woody said grinning as he came back out and jumped up onto the edge of the record player.

"You guys aren't excited about this are you?" Emily asked grinning.

"Of course we are, it's been darn near twenty years since we've heard this music." Jessie replied.

As soon as Emily had put the record on and the music started playing Jessie grabbed Buzz and started dancing around the room with him while Woody remained on the record player, his foot tapping along with the music until Jessie pulled him down and started dancing with him too.

Emily went back to the box the record had come out of and pulled out a Woody's roundup lunch box and a few other things, a smile spread across her face as she came to the bottom of the box, "You guys are not going to believe who I just found."

"Please tell me it's not another Woody, one is enough to deal with." Buzz said jokingly.

"Couldn't be near as bad as having two of you around." Woody replied as he came over to stand next to Buzz and Jessie.

"Nope, it's not another Woody." Emily told them as she pulled the toy out and set it on the floor in front of them.

"Stinky Pete." they all said sounding less than thrilled to see him as Woody and Jessie took a step back and Buzz moved protectively in front of Jessie, looking ready to attack it at any moment.

"Actually I prefer polka Pete or just Pete, I really don't understand why they decided to call me stinky Pete. Now would some one mind explaining why we're talking in front of a human." Pete said.

"It's a long story, they can explain later." Emily told him, "So, why polka Pete?"

"Because it's a far more fitting name for me." he replied walking over to the record player and moving it to another song, then walked over to Jessie, bowed and asked, "May I have this dance?"

Jessie hesitated looking unsure of what to do, before she could answer the Prospector Polka song started and he grabbed her hand and started dancing with her. Jessie seemed stiff and unsure for a minute but eventually relaxed.

As the song ended Pete said, "That's why I should have been called polka Pete."

"It certainly would have made sense to me." Emily said, "Now lets get this stuff downstairs and introduce you to the others so I can go get my horses taken care of."

"Can I join you? It would be nice to get some fresh air after being stuck in that box for what seems like forever." Pete said.

"Sure, I'll drop the record player off in the toy room and then the four of you can help me with the horses." Emily replied.

"Wow, what's with all the stuff sitting around out here?" Pete asked as they stepped outside.

"No trash service, some of this stuff has been here since before you could get your trash picked up and for years Grandma and my great grandparent's just couldn't afford to get a lot of the bigger stuff taken to the junk yard. They burned what they could and the rest got stacked out here, it's been a mess as long as I can remember. Someday I hope to get it all cleaned up, but cleaning up almost a hundred years worth of junk takes a while." Emily told them.

Once they got to the barn Emily introduced them to each of her four horses and foal, "Be careful." she told the toys then set to work.

When she had finished Emily said, "Okay guys lets go."

"Oh do we have to? We haven't been out here that long and this poor little thing needs more attention." Jessie said petting the foal.

"You can come out and see her again tomorrow, right now I need to go take care of the cows." Emily said then smiled, "I've got a couple of calves in the other barn."

"Well why didn't you say so before? Let's go." Jessie said turning back to the foal "I'll come back and see you tomorrow my sweet little one." Jessie told it, petting it a few more times and giving it a kiss on the forehead.

After taking care of the cows and dragging Jessie away from the calves Emily took them back inside.

When they got to the toy room and the other toys saw Pete for the first time the ones who she had gotten with Buzz seemed just as distrusting and less than pleased to see him, "Hey Woody why don't you come back downstairs, I want to talk to you about something." Emily said.

"Sure, no problem." Woody replied letting her pick him up and carry him back downstairs with her.

Once they were in the kitchen Emily set him down on the counter and asked, "What's up with you guys and Pete? None of you seem very happy to see him, I'd think it would be exciting for you having the whole roundup gang together."

"We had a run in with a less than friendly Pete a while back." Woody said then told her about being stolen and nearly sent to Japan.

"Wow, no wonder you were unsure about the Pete we found in the attic, he seems nice enough, maybe the other one was only like that because of never being allowed out of his box. I'd imagine being stuck in a box like that your whole life would leave anyone at least a little mentally unstable. On the off chance that it is a personality thing with all of his toys and he causes you any trouble just let me know and I'll ship him off to grandma." Emily told him.

"Okay. So why does you're grandmother collect Woody's Roundup stuff? So she can sell it all and make a profit someday, like Al wanted to?" Woody asked.

"No, she's actually had a few people offer to buy her collection or part of it, but she always refuses. It started out as a way to rebel against her mom after she moved out on her own when she was twenty. When she was a kid she loved Woody's Roundup and had a Jessie doll and several other Woody's Roundup things, but when she got older Jessie disappeared and she assumed her mom had gotten rid of her because great grandma always said that toys were for small children and that when you get older you shouldn't keep them. A few years later grandma found Jessie, right after finding out they were moving and great grandma told her to get rid of Jessie and the other stuff that grandma still had. When grandma said she didn't want to her mom gave her a choice, get rid of Jessie and all the Woody's Roundup stuff or get rid of her record player and all her records, she wasn't allowed to take both with her when they moved. She was a teenager and wasn't about to give up her music, although it broke her heart to get rid of Jessie. As soon as she moved out on her own she started collecting everything from Woody's Roundup that she could find, much to the disapproval of great grandma. She always says that someday she's going to find her Jessie."

"Most of the family thinks she's crazy and obsessed, especially since grandpa died, since then she spends most of her time taking care of her collection and trying to find her Jessie. Maybe it is crazy, but we've always been really close and if insanity is what it takes to keep her with us I'd rather have her be crazy. After grandpa died she just seemed to give up, like she was ready to die, she couldn't bear being away from grandpa and everyone thought we'd be burring her soon as well. Then I found a Jessie doll at a flea market, took it to her and asked her if it was hers, it wasn't and I told her we would just have to keep looking for her Jessie and that I needed her too much for her to just give up. I don't know if it was because I said I needed her so much or because she still wanted to find her Jessie or both, but within the next few days she was recovering and becoming obsessed with finding her Jessie." Emily told him.

"I never realized that toys could still mean so much to older humans instead of just to children, but how will she know when she's found her Jessie?" Woody asked.

"I don't know, I asked her about that a few times as well as asking why she's so obsessed with finding her Jessie, but it was always when we were around the rest of the family. She said she trusted me, but she'd wait to tell me when we were alone because if anyone else found out she thinks they'll try to trick her into thinking she'd found her Jessie and if anyone heard why she's so obsessed with finding her Jessie they'd probably lock her up in a metal hospital. Now that I've met you guys I wonder if her Jessie came to life in front of her, although I can't imagine she would have given her up if she had known." Emily said.

"You're right, it does seem strange that she's so determined to find the same Jessie that she had when she was a kid unless she new she was alive. I'd love to know what you find out from her." Woody said.

"I'll let you know, she's actually coming to visit me in two months, she always spends the weekend with me when my uncle comes down this way for a car show, so we'll have plenty of time to talk alone then." Emily told him.

* * *

So has anyone else heard the song The Prospector Polka from the Woody's Roundup CD? It makes Pete sound like such a friendly fun character and made me decide to bring him into this story.

I forgot to mention I have a couple of picture up on my Deviantart account to go along with the last chapter, you can get to it through the homepage link on my profile.

Can't make any guarantees as to when the next chapter will be up, I'll try to get it up next weekend, but it's only half written and I've been having a hard time concentrating on anything and have pretty much been depressed out of my mind since my grandma died last Sunday and it's only gotten worse since I found out her funeral was on Thursday and for some reason no one let me know even though my uncle promised he would so I could find a ride to go down there.


	5. Chapter 5

Here's a nice long chapter since I'll be leaving on Sunday, I'm not sure how long I'll be gone, could be a few days, could be a week or two, my great aunt hasn't actually said how long I can stay yet and I don't think they have any type of internet or if I'll have any time to write while I'm there. Hopefully this will keep everyone content until I get home and have time to write.

* * *

Emily walked into the toy room early the next morning, "Do any of you want to go to school with me?" she asked.

"Why would you take us to school with you?" Mr. Potato Head asked.

"I teach second grade and the kids get board after a while with the toys we have there and it's supposed to rain most of the day, so they'll be stuck inside for recess." Emily told them.

"We'd get to be played with again?" Rex asked.

"Yep and then I can bring you home with me this evening." Emily replied.

"I'm coming, I want to get played with again." Rex said practically running over to her.

"Buzz and I will be staying here." Jessie said, shooting a mischievous grin at Buzz before going back to looking through a pile of the records they had brought down out of the attic.

In the end Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head, Rex and Slinky decided to go with Emily while Jessie, Buzz and Bullseye decided to stay home, "Where is Woody?" Emily asked as she set down a box for the toys to get into to go with her.

"That's odd, he's usually around, then again we don't usually have the freedom of the only human in the house knowing we're alive, but I still wouldn't think he would leave the room without letting someone know." Buzz said.

"He probably just didn't think about letting anyone know." Jessie said.

"But he always-" Buzz stopped for a moment as Jessie took his hand in hers, their eyes meeting as a sad look crossed Jessie's face, "I forgot what day it was."

"What do you mean?" Emily asked.

"It's been eighteen years today since his girlfriend was sold at a yard sale, he always get's a little depressed on the anniversary of losing her." Buzz explained.

"The poor thing, do you think he's alright?" Emily asked.

"He'll be fine and back by tomorrow, although this is the first time he's actually left since she was sold, but with the freedom of not having a kid notice him missing he probably decided to find somewhere else to go to get some time alone." Buzz said.

"Yeah, when she was first sold he disappeared for a whole week, our owner, Andy, thought he had accidentally been put out to sell and we all thought he wasn't coming back. A week later he showed up trying to act like nothing had happened." Jessie added.

"Okay, well I've got to get to work, I'll see you guys later." Emily said as she picked up the box that the other toys had all climbed into and left.

That evening Emily was washing dishes and looking out the window above the sink as the sun started to set when she noticed movement in the bushes at the edge of the yard. Woody came out of the bushes and made his way towards the house, a moment later Emily heard something hit the door and attempt to turn the knob.

Walking over to the door and unlocking it, she opened the door, "You could just try knocking or letting me know your going outside so I can leave it unlocked for you." she told him.

"Sorry about that, I just had a lot on my mind and it's kind of nice being able to go outside without worrying about anyone questioning how you were able to leave." Woody said.

"It's alright." Emily said as she picked him up and set him on the table then sat down, "So, tell me about this girlfriend of your's." Emily said.

"They told you about her?" Woody asked.

"Not much, just that she was sold at a yard sale eighteen years ago and that's why you had disappeared." Emily told him.

Woody sighed and sat down on the table, " Her name was Bo Peep, she was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. She was the first toy I'd ever met who I wasn't sure how to act around at first and she always knew how to put my mind at ease when I was worried or upset. Then one day there was a yard sale and they took her, I tried to rescue her, but someone bought her before I could sneak her back into the house. I spent a week sneaking from house to house asking the toys there if they had seen her, but I never found her and finally had to give up and go home."

"So Bo Peep, like Little Bo Peep?" Emily asked.

"Yeah, she had these sheep that were constantly getting into trouble." Woody told her.

"What did she look like?" Emily asked.

"She had blond curls, a pink bonnet and her dress had a pink top with a white skirt with pink polka dots and a bit of pink lace around the top. I was always so afraid Andy would break her when he played with her."

"Why, wasn't she a toy like the rest of you?" Emily asked.

"No, she was part of a lamp, she was made of porcelain. Why do you want to know so much about her?" Woody asked.

"Well, it's a long shot and maybe impossible, so I don't want you to get your hopes up or anything, but I go to a lot of yard sales and flea markets on the weekends and I thought I could take you with me and we could look for her." Emily told him.

Woody stared at her for a moment, too shocked to say anything, "You'd really do that for me? You'd really look for her? I'm just a toy, why do that for me? Why spend your time trying to find her when it's so unlikely that we'd ever find her?" he finally asked.

"Because you're not just a toy, you're a living, sentient being who deserves to be able to live out his life with the woman he loves and you saved my life, this is the least I can do for you. Anyways I'd already be going to the sales, the only difference is now you'll be going with me and if we see any lamps that might be her I'll find a way to get you close enough to find out for sure." Emily replied.

Emily and Woody spent the next hour making plans and working out the details so that Woody could go with her and talk to other toys at the yard sales without being noticed.

When they finally headed upstairs the light in Emily's room was on and music was playing. Emily silently pushed the door open far enough for her and Woody, who was sitting on her shoulder, to see in. Emily's iPod was set up with a speaker and was playing a fast paced song as Buzz and Jessie danced gracefully across the floor.

"They're good." Emily whispered to Woody.

"They've been dancing for about fourteen years, so they've had lots of time to practice although they we're already naturally good at it when they first started." Woody told her.

They watched silently for another minute or so until the song ended, Buzz dipping Jessie back then pulling her back up and kissing her.

"Okay guys I need to get to bed, which means I need my room back." Emily said when they stopped kissing.

Buzz and Jessie both jumped, having not noticed that they had an audience, "I hope you don't mind us coming in here, its just more romantic when it's just the two of us." Jessie said.

"It's fine, I don't mind at all." Emily said as she set Woody on the floor.

"Great, well see you in the morning, good night." Jessie said as they all headed towards the door.

"Good night." Emily told them.

"Woody, you ready to go?" Emily asked as she stepped into the toy room on Friday morning.

"Don't the rest of us get to come?" Rex asked.

"Not today, the weather is perfect so the kids will be outside for recess, Woody and I are just going to stop at some yard sales on the way home to look for some of your missing friends." Emily told him.

"You'll look for my babies won't you?" Mrs. Potato Head asked Woody as he walked over to Emily.

"Of course I will." Woody assured her before Emily picked him up and let him sit on her shoulder as she left.

"Her babies?" Emily asked as they headed downstairs.

"Yes, they were three little green aliens, Mr. Potato Head saved them from falling out of the truck they used to get to the airport when I was kidnapped and they followed him around constantly after that and Mrs. Potato Head decided to adopt them. They could be a little annoying sometimes, but they saved our lives and it was quite a blow when they were sold, especially to Mrs. Potato Head." Woody told her.

"Oh the poor thing, I hope we can find them for her. How did they save your life?" Emily asked as she set Woody on the kitchen table next to a large purse.

"It's a long story." Woody replied as he climbed into the purse.

"Well then you can start telling me on the way and if you haven't finished by the time we get to school I'll eat lunch in the class room and you can finish telling me about it." Emily said as she carefully picked the purse up and left.

"Wow, Lotso makes that other Pete you ran into sound friendly in comparison. I never would have imagined that toys could be so, evil, especially after you risked your life to help him." Emily said as Woody finished telling her about Sunny Side and how the aliens had saved them.

"Yeah, we couldn't believe it either." Woody replied.

"And the aliens saved you, then ended up being sold at a yard sale, and they all looked identical?" Emily asked.

"Yes, completely identical." Woody replied.

"So the chances of one person getting all three of them and them still being together are pretty slim." Emily said.

"I don't know, we saw them and Hamm get bought, a women in a van with four children bought them, three of the kids each picked up one of the aliens and the fourth took Hamm, so it's possible they're still together." Woody told her.

"And how long ago was that?" Emily asked.

"A little over three years ago." Woody replied.

"So there's not too much of a chance that they could have been resold and separated already, although it could also mean it would be a while until those kids decide to get rid of them, but we'll keep an eye out for them." Emily said as she pulled up to a yard sale.

Five yard sales later they still hadn't found anything, Emily was going through a tub of little toys, with the purse carefully balanced on the edge so Woody could let her know if he saw anyone familiar. Down in one corner Emily found a single red haired girl quint and picked her up then walked over to the woman running the sale, "Do you have any of the other dolls like this?" she asked.

"Where did you find her?" the woman asked.

"In the twenty five cent tub." Emily replied.

"Oh dear, well I did have the whole set in their little bed on the table, but someone must have knocked that one down, I sold the rest this morning." the woman told her.

"Do you think the people who bought the others might come back looking for her?" Emily asked.

"No, they probably didn't even realize I had her." the woman replied.

"Well then I'll take her." Emily said and paid the woman.

Once they were in the car Woody climbed out of the purse to sit on the passenger seat and Emily handed him the quint, who, as soon as she realized she was with another toy and didn't have to stay in toy mode started to cry.

"Oh you poor little thing." Emily said gently running one finger over the back of the little girl's head, "You'll be okay, we'll take good care of you, I promise." she told her before starting the car.

By the time they got home the little girl had cried herself to sleep in Woody's arms and Emily carefully carried them both into the house then up to the doll room, "We have a new addition to the family." she told the cousins as she knelt down and set Woody on the floor, "She's quite upset, apparently she was still with the rest of her set until this morning, she got knocked into a tub of toys and someone bought the others without ever realizing she was there." Emily explained.

"Oh the poor thing, don't worry too much though, all of the others who you've brought home with less than a complete set have all adjusted and come to be happy with use, it'll just take a little while." one of the cousins replied.

"Good, if there's anything I can do to help let me know." Emily told her.

"I think I'll stay in here for tonight." Woody said looking down at the little girl in his arms, "I don't want to wake her." he said as he sat down leaning against the wall.

"Alright, I'll see you in the morning then, good night." Emily said then left.

Emily was sitting at the kitchen table looking through the adds for yard sales in the news paper the next morning when Woody came down and climbed up onto the table.

"How did she do after I left?" Emily asked.

"She slept through the night and just woke up a little while ago, she started crying again, but we were able to get her calmed down and now she's playing with the others. I think she'll be just fine." Woody told her.

"I hope you're right, I feel so bad for her. It doesn't seem right that you guys are alive, but can't do anything to ensure you stay with the people you care about, it's just not fair." Emily said, "I can't believe no toy has ever let anyone know they were alive to avoid being separated from their family and friends. I mean who even made up this rule that humans can't know you're alive?"

"I don't know, it's just sort of an instinct, we just know that we can't let humans know about us, even a toy who doesn't realize they are a toy instinctively goes into toy mode when humans are around." Woody told her.

"A toy not knowing they're a toy, without being brainwashed into to believing it?" Emily asked.

Woody smiled, "No one's told you about what Buzz was like when he first showed up?" he asked.

"No." Emily replied.

"I'll tell you about it on the way to the sales." Woody told her.

"Okay." Emily agreed as she marked one more sale on a map of sales she had made then put it into her purse.

By the time they pulled up to the first sale Emily was laughing too hard to get out of the car right away, "Oh I wish I could have seen that, it must have been so entertaining." she said.

"Just find a Buzz Lightyear who is mint in the box and hasn't woken up yet. Buzz actually did that to the second Buzz when they came to rescue me and he reacted the same way, it's entirely possible that every single Buzz Lightyear ever made actually believed they were real and not just a toy." Woody told her.

"So Buzz didn't wake up until he was taken out of his box, but Pete was still in his box and awake, so do most toys come to life for the first time before or after they're taken out of their box?" Emily asked.

"I don't really know, I woke up for the first time when I was taken out of my box, but I've known plenty of toys who have been awake before even being bought. There doesn't really seem to be one set way things happen, toys come to life at different times, some toys that you wouldn't expect to come to life, like Etch do and others that you would think would come to life never do. My original owner, Andy's dad, Harry, had a cousin who had a Tammy doll that never came to life. And then you have Slinky, Rex and Bullseye, all three look like animals, but Slinky and Rex both have human like personalities while Bullseye, although smart, is still not that different from a normal animal." Woody told her.

"Wow, it all sounds really crazy and mixed up." Emily said.

"Yeah, I'd never really thought about it before, but it is." Woody agreed.

"Well you can tell me more about the confusing life of toys and Buzz's delusional days shortly, we should probably go look around this sale before some one comes out to ask why I've just been sitting here so long." Emily said.

"You're right, we wouldn't want them to think you're sitting here talking to yourself." Woody agreed then climbed into the purse.

The rest of the day was uneventful, they went to every garage sale in the area, but never ran across any toys that Woody knew. At lunch time they stopped at the cemetery where Emily's grandfather and great grandparents were buried to have a picnic as the park was too crowded for Woody to be able to stay alive without constantly having to go back to toy mode.

"Oh well, maybe we'll find Bo and the other missing toys next weekend." Emily said as they headed into the house later that day.

"I hope so, although I didn't really expect to find any of them today, that would have been too easy." Woody said as he climbed out of the purse.

"And you toys never do anything the easy way, do you?" Emily asked.

"Of course not, what fun would that be?" Woody replied then jumped down off of the table.

"Where are you heading to?" Emily asked.

"I promised Molly I'd come check on her and tell her and the others a story when we got back." Woody replied.

"Molly?" Emily asked.

"Yeah, the quint you found yesterday, when we asked her she said her previous owner never gave her a name and she asked me to come up with one for her, so I suggested Molly and she liked it." Woody replied.

"Well I wouldn't want her to have to wait any longer than necessary." Emily said as she picked him up and set him on her shoulder then headed upstairs, "Anyways I don't have anything else to do so I think I'll join you."

Once they got up to the doll room Molly ran over to Woody and he picked her up, "You gonna tell me stories now?" she asked.

"Yep, as soon as we find out if anyone else wants to listen." Woody told her.

Within minutes a group of dolls and all of the quints had gathered around Woody except for Molly who was sitting in his lap and Emily was sitting with her back against the wall as Woody stated to tell them a story.


	6. Chapter 6

What do you get when you cross watching the movie City Slickers with having a pregnant cat? One of the scenes in this chapter.

* * *

The next Saturday Emily and Woody headed out again, going to every yard sale they could find as well as a flea market, but they hadn't run into any toys that Woody knew.

"Oh well, there's always next weekend." Emily said as she set the purse on the kitchen table and Woody climbed out.

"No luck finding the missing toys, I take it?" Pete asked coming out from under a cot that had set along one of the kitchen walls for as long as Emily could remember.

"No, no luck at all." Emily replied, "What about you, find anything interesting?" she asked.

"Of course." Pete replied jumping up on top of the cot and handing Emily a small gold earring of a ship and a red gem stone, the earring was under the dresser in the middle front bedroom and the jewel was stuck under the edge of the carpet along the wall in the same room." he told her.

"I'm beginning to think that song is right, you are the best at finding gold or any type of jewels or valuables." Emily said as she took the items from him and dropped them into a dish on the table that was quickly filling up with the trinkets he had found.

"Well, of course I am, my previous owner never lost anything because anything he lost I could find within a day of him losing it." Pete replied.

"Well then, do you want to go see what you can find outside?" Emily asked, "I need to get the flower garden weeded out back, you can help pull weeds and see if you find anything interesting."

"That sounds like a splendid idea." Pete replied.

"Would you like to come help in the garden too?" Emily asked Woody.

"Sure." Woody replied.

"Great, I'll go see if anyone else wants to join us." Emily said then headed upstairs.

Five minutes later Emily, Woody, Pete, Jessie and Buzz were out in the garden, "Okay, tell me one more time, how do you tell which one is a weed and which one is a flower when they don't have flowers on them?" Buzz asked.

Jessie giggled, "My poor little space man, you can go on forever about aliens, distant planets and stuff like that, but simple plants confuse you." she said kissing him on the cheek, "You're so cute." she told him then showed him again which plants were weeds and which were flowers.

Once Buzz had gotten the hang of telling flowers from weeds they split into two groups, Emily and Jessie on one teem and Woody and Buzz on the other, Pete had disappeared shortly after they came out. Marking a line in the garden each team started weeding in opposite directions to see who could pull the most weeds.

"So how long have you and Buzz been dating?" Emily asked as they worked.

"About fourteen years, although I think we knew we liked each other a long time before that, we just never really talked about it until after the whole thing with the daycare." Jessie replied.

"Wow, that long and you guys have never gotten married?"

"Well most toys don't bother getting married." Jessie replied.

"Why not? What about the Potato Heads?" Emily asked.

"Well the Potato Heads were sort of made for each other and there's a better chance that if one got sold they would both get sold at the same time and bought by the same person. For other toys, it just doesn't really seem fair to get married and then probably end up getting separated. I mean Woody still hasn't gotten over Bo, how much harder would it be if they had been married? Plus if you do get separated you don't want the person you love waiting forever, being faithful to you and hoping to find you if they'd have a chance to be happy with someone else. Anyways it's not like we can really do anything more together once we're married like humans can." Jessie told her.

"True, although that's not something I would even think a toy would know much about and the first reason isn't much of a reason, as long as nothing happens to me, you two have at least a whole human lifetime to spend together." Emily said.

"Yeah, I kind of found out accidentally right after my Emily got me she left me in her parents room and I learned more about humans than I ever wanted to know, luckily they were to distracted to notice me climbing off of the chair I had been left on and under the dresser, where I spent the rest of the night. It wasn't until years later, while I was still under Emily's bed and her mother gave her 'the talk' as she called, that I found out exactly what I had witnessed. Woody heard it when Harry and Bonnie got the talk. I think Buzz is still a little in the dark about it because he and I had been left in the closet alone together when Bonnie heard it and were completely distracted. And you're absolutely right about us not having to worry about being separated for a long time, I just may have to rope me a space toy." Jessie said with a grin, then cried out "Ha! We win!" as she pulled the last weed from their section of the garden.

"You only won because Buzz doesn't have a clue what he's doing." Woody said.

"Hey, what do you mean I don't know what I'm doing, I thought I was doing pretty well." Buzz said.

"Sure, you were doing great, if she wanted all the flowers pulled up." Woody said picking up a yellow flower out of the pile of weeds Buzz had pulled.

"But I thought she said those flowers were weeds." Buzz said then turned and looked worriedly at Emily, "I'm sorry, I swear I was sure you said those were weeds."

Emily struggled for a moment, trying to keep a straight face, but at the look of complete and sincere regret on Buzz's face she couldn't hold out any longer and started laughing and Jessie and Woody quickly joined in.

"Woody you're horrible." Emily finally managed to say.

"It's alright Buzz, it's a dandelion, it is a weed." Jessie told him, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek, "You're so cute when you're worried." she added.

"I'm going to get you for this, when you least expect it I'll do something that will make you look absolutely clueless." Buzz said to Woody.

"Good luck with that." Woody replied, ducking as Buzz threw a weed at him and nearly hit Pete as he walked around a nearby tree.

"Are the weeds causing you so much trouble you have to toss them around?" Pete asked.

"Only for the space toy who can't tell the difference between weeds and flowers." Woody told him.

"Well what else would you expect from a space toy? Although I suppose there must be things he knows that we don't, even if it is useless information for a toy." Pete said then walked over to Emily and handed her a half circle pieces of metal, that was about two and half inches by one inch.

"Where did you find this?" Emily asked as she ran her fingers over the heart that rose up from the middle of the piece.

"It was out in the field, based on the place for hinges on it I'd say it use to be part of a jewelry box." Pete told her.

"You truly are amazing with all these little things you keep finding." Emily said.

"Oh it's not really that impressive, not until I find me a proper gold mine and make us all rich." Pete replied.

"Emily! Emily!" someone called.

"I'm over here" Emily replied.

A moment later a Barbie ran down the path to them, "That cat you brought in the other night is in labor." she said.

"Thanks for letting me know." Emily told her, "Okay guys, let's head inside." she said quickly picking up the toys and heading inside.

Several hours later the cat was still having contractions, but none of the kittens had come out yet.

"Something has to be wrong, it shouldn't be taking this long." Jessie said from where she was sitting gently petting the cat's head.

"I think you're right," Emily said, "Maybe I should call the v-"

"Woody what on earth are you doing?" Buzz suddenly asked.

"The kitten is breech and stuck, I'm doing the same thing you'd do with a cow or horse." Woody replied from where he was kneeling by the back end of the cat.

"That's disgusting." Buzz said, looking a little green as he moved away from Woody and next to Jessie.

"Gotta do what you have to, to save the mother and baby." Jessie said patting him comfortingly on the shoulder.

A moment later Woody pulled the kitten out and cleared it's mouth and nose, it started crying and the mother took over cleaning it.

"Good job cowboy. How on earth did you know how to do that?" Emily asked.

"I don't know, just sort of an innate knowledge I guess, all toys have memories of lives they never really lived, that's how you end up with some nut cases like Buzz who don't believe they're toys at first. In those memories this is something I've had to do a few times with cows and horses." Woody replied.

"That's so odd, I wonder why you have those memories." Emily said.

"I don't know, but I'm sure glad we do." Woody said.

After that six more kittens were born without incident, "Well I'd say that's all of them." Emily said after nearly an hour with no sign of more contractions, "Woody, you get to come soak you're arms in some Oxiclean and if that doesn't get the blood off we're in trouble. I can just see someone coming in, seeing you and asking how a toy got blood stains up to his elbows.

"I think I'll stay here with the kittens for tonight." Jessie said.

"Alright, just remember you're not allowed to touch the kittens until their eyes open." Emily said.

"I know, I won't." Jessie said.

"I'll stay with her and make sure she doesn't." Buzz said.

"Okay, good night you two." Emily said before leaving the room.

"Doesn't it just make you wish we could have kids?" Jessie asked as she sat down next to Buzz and leaned back against his chest while watching the kittens.

"No, I wouldn't want to see you go through that, how could you possibly want to go through that?" Buzz asked.

"Because I think it would be amazing to have that little life growing inside of you and then be able to raise it and care for it. To be able to make a difference in a child's life instead of just sitting there watching while being unable to do anything." Jessie said.

"Yeah, I guess it would be nice, if there weren't so much blood and pain involved." Buzz replied.

The next few weeks passed quickly, Jessie spent a lot of her time watching the kittens and playing with them once they're eyes opened. Emily and Woody continued to go to yard sales and flea markets on the weekends, but hadn't found any sign of Bo or the other missing toys.

It was now another perfect fall, Saturday morning.

"So what are the plans for today? There's only a few sales listed this weekend." Woody said as he circled an add in the news paper he was sitting on in the middle of the kitchen table.

"Well how about a little road trip, there's an auction in a little town about an hour and half south of here called Debolt's Corner. The stuff they're selling belonged to a woman who collected figurine lamps. She had over two hundred different lamps." Emily told him as she picked him up and carried him into the library where she had a computer set up.

"Now there could be hundreds of lamps out there that look just like your Bo, but is this what she looked like?" Emily asked as she opened a picture that showed several dozen lamps with various figurines on the bases including one of Little Bo Peep and her sheep.

"It's her, or at least it looks like her." Woody said smiling slightly.

"Well then let's go find out for sure. I'll let the others know we won't be home until late and then we can leave." Emily said as she shut the computer down.

A long drive later they arrived at the auction, luckily there was still an hour and a half until it started so there weren't too many people there yet. Woody climbed into Emily's purse and they headed inside. It was a large building with three long rows of tables set up with the lamps on them, after checking several tables and not see any sign of Bo Peep Emily spotted one of the auctioneers and headed over to him.

"In the pictures you had online there was a lamp with Little Bo Peep, can you tell me what table it would be on?" Emily asked.

"I'm afraid I can't, they're not really set out in any particular order and we had a stray dog run through here chasing a cat earlier, it knocked a couple of boxes over and a few of the lamps broke, but my workers haven't let me know which ones were damaged yet." he replied.

"Okay, thank you." Emily said as she headed down another row of tables.

"I'm sure it wasn't her, she's probably just in the last row." Emily said quietly as she started down the last row of tables. They were down to the last table when Emily noticed a bit of pink nestled between three other taller lamps. A smile quickly spread across her face as she got close enough to tell for sure that it was Bo Peep. Subtly lifting her purse so Woody would be able to see over the lamp that was in front of Bo, Emily whispered, "Woody look."

His head popped out of her purse slowly and he grinned. Emily glanced around to make sure there was no one else near by, "Alright, go find out if it's her." she whispered as she held her purse up to the edge of the table so Woody could climb out.


	7. Chapter 7

Emily watched as Woody quickly made his way through the lamps then ducked between the taller lamps and started talking to Bo. After a few seconds Bo's expression changed although she looked nervous about talking when a human was near by. Emily couldn't hear what Bo and Woody were saying, but a moment later a disappointed look on Woody's face made it clear that this wasn't his Bo. He came back and slipped back into Emily's purse then Emily headed out to her car.

"It wasn't her?" she said as soon as soon as they were in the car.

"No, it just looked like her." Woody replied sounding depressed.

"Hey, don't give up yet, we've only been looking for her for five weekends, we both new it wouldn't be that easy to find her and it could be years before who ever has her decides to sell her. We just have to keep looking, we're not giving up until we find her, she's got to be out there somewhere and sooner or later we will find her." Emily said.

"Unless someone broke her." Woody replied.

"Oh quit being so pessimistic, we'll find her and bring her home, then she can keep you busy looking after her sheep and you won't have time to be pessimistic about anything." Emily said, reaching over and pushing the brim of Woody's hat down over his face.

Woody straitened his hat then half smiled, "They did have a knack for causing trouble." he said.

"Should we go ahead and head home and look for yard sales on the way?" Emily asked, "There really wasn't anything here I wanted to stay and bid on."

"Sure." Woody said then added, "I'm sorry you wasted your time driving this far only to find out it wasn't her."

"Nonsense, it's a nice day for a drive and we get to drive through some beautiful country to go home. So tell me more about the trouble those sheep caused." Emily said.

Over the next forty five minutes Woody told Emily about the sheep, Buster and pet's that Bonnie had had and Emily told him about pets and animals she had had.

"You want to go for a walk and see the fall leaves?" Emily asked as she pulled into a state park.

"Do you think that's safe? Couldn't there be other people out here?" Woody replied.

"Not too many and we can take the purse with us so you can hide in there if we run across anyone." Emily said.

"Okay, getting out sounds like a good idea." Woody replied.

About an hour later Emily had hiked to small water fall and sat down on one of the smooth rocks near the clearing at the bottom of it to take a break. "Do you think we should head back or keep going?" she asked Woody, who was sitting on her shoulder.

"It's up to you, I don't mind staying out here as long as you want to. It's nice getting to see some new scenery, especially as beautiful and peaceful as this place is." Woody replied.

"Yeah, I've always loved it out here, if grandma hadn't given me the farm I probably would have moved to this area." Emily told him as she got up and continued along the path.

Another hour later they were just starting to consider heading home when they heard voices nearby.

"Hand over the necklace." a man demanded angrily.

"Please, take the money, take the other jewelry, but not this. Please it was a gift from my son right before he died." a woman begged.

"Hand it over or I'll send you to join your son." the man replied.

"This can't be good." Emily whispered to Woody as they peaked through the bushes and could see a clearing with a picnic area, an elderly couple sitting at one of the tables while a man in a ski cap held a knife and threatened them.

"Definitely not." Woody replied.

"Stay here." Emily said as she set Woody down and slipped off her shoes to make sure her movements were as silent as possible, "Unless it looks like I absolutely need your help." she added as she pulled out her cell phone, "I need police at the east picnic area in the state park, there's a man with a knife threatening to kill an elderly couple." she said then listened to the person on the other end for a moment, "I can't stay on the phone with you, if someone doesn't do something now the guy is going to get away." she said then hung up.

"What do you mean, what are you going to do?" Woody asked.

"I can't just stand around and do nothing to help." Emily replied before picking up a long sturdy tree branch and silently making her way through the trees until she was directly behind the man.

Emily silently slipped out of the woods and carefully moved towards the man, when the couple noticed her they kept their eyes on the robber and the husband stopped his wife as she had been about to hand over the necklace, "Wait, what if I wrote you a check, we're fairly well off, I'll make for any amount you want and won't tell anyone what's happened." the elderly man asked buying Emily more time to sneak up on the robber.

"Do you think I'm stupid enough to get a check and then go cash it, by the time I did you'd have cops at every bank waiting for me. Hand it over now or I swear I'll kill you both." the man said angrily stabbing the knife into the table.

As soon as the knife hit the table Emily swung the branch, hitting the man in the back of the head, he quickly fell to the ground, but started to get back up. Emily swiftly grabbed the knife from the table and knelt down with her knee in the middle of the mans back, "You move and you die." she said holding the knife to his neck.

"You got a belt?" she asked the elderly man.

"Yes." he replied.

"Good, use it to tie his hands." Emily instructed.

"Are you two alright?" Emily asked the couple as she pulled the robbers belt off and wrapped it around the his ankles.

"Thanks to you we are." the woman replied walking towards her.

"I don't know how we can ever thank you enough for stopping this man." the man said.

"It's nothing, I couldn't just hide and do nothing." Emily replied, "Are you sure you're alright?" she asked as she took the woman's shaking hand and lead her back to sit at the picnic table.

"Yes dear, just a little shaken." the woman said fingering the locket around her neck, "I was so afraid he was going to take this." she said opening the locket to reveal a baby picture and a picture of a young man in a police uniform, "My son gave it to me for mothers day a month before he was killed on duty." she told her, tears starting to fill her eyes as her husband sat next to her and wrapped his arm around her shoulders.

Emily stayed with the couple, talking to them and calming them down until the police arrived. Once they had gotten a statement from her she got her purse with Woody in it and they drove her back too her car.

"What are you staring at?" Emily asked when she noticed Woody staring at her from the passenger seat as thy drove home.

"I never realized just how tough and brave you are, if those men who broke into your house hadn't snuck up on you, you probably could have handled them just fine on your own and never would have needed my help. Woody said.

"It was nothing, I just did what had to be done." Emily replied dismissively.

"It seems to me most humans would have just called the police and stayed out of sight, especially since the man wasn't going to hurt the people as long as they did what he wanted. Most people wouldn't have risked their own safety to help someone else in that situation." Woody pointed out.

"He was hurting them, he was breaking that poor old woman's heart by taking her locket, even after she told him how much it meant to her. I couldn't let someone that heartless get away to hurt someone else, who knows what he was really capable of doing, how many more people he could have hurt or even killed if he kept it up. He had to be stopped, I was just in the right place at the right time." Emily told him.

"It was still pretty impressive." Woody said.

"I guess." Emily said then smiled, "It certainly helped me get some of my confidence back. I always use to think I could take care of my self if I had to, I'd been doubting that ever since those guys broke in, now, well maybe you're right. If I hadn't been snuck up on maybe I would have had a chance against them."

When they got home they could here Buzz yelling for help and saying something was trying to kill him. Emily quickly ran into the living room where the screams were coming from and found Buzz and Jessie in the makeshift playpen they had made for the kittens. Jessie was sitting to one side with one of the kittens curled up in her lap as she laughed. Buzz was pinned down on his stomach with two of the kittens on his back, while a third scratched at his helmet trying to get to his head.

"I see you guys we're having fun while we were gone." Emily said.

Jessie grinned up at her, "They're just starting to play, aren't they the cutest little things you've ever seen?"

"Yep, absolutely adorable." Emily replied as she scooped the two kittens off of Buzz and cuddled them.

"Any luck finding Bo?" Buzz asked.

"No, it wasn't her, she must be somewhere else." Woody said as he climbed into the pen and sat down next to the kitten he had delivered and it quickly climbed into his lap and started purring as he pet it.

"You'll find her, she's out there somewhere." Buzz told him.

"I know, I just wish it wasn't taking so long." Woody replied.

"Well for now all we can do is believe we'll find her and play with these kittens to take your mind off of her." Jessie said as she dangled a ribbon above one of the kittens that was laying on it's back in front of her and batted at the ribbon.

"I think that sounds' like a great idea." Emily said as she sat down next to the pen and started playing with one of the kittens.

* * *

I'm sorry, please don't kill me, but its been years since Bo was sold, she could be anywhere, so finding her won't be quick or easy.


	8. Chapter 8

Emily woke up one night to find Jessie sitting next to her pillow looking upset, "What's wrong?" Emily asked.

"I'm sorry I didn't mean to wake you." Jessie said.

"It's alright, now what's wrong?" Emily asked again.

"Buzz and I had a fight." Jessie replied, tears beginning to roll down her cheeks.

"What about?" Emily asked.

"I wanted to try riding one of your horses and Buzz said it would be too dangerous. I said I'd be fine and, well in the end he said he wouldn't even let me to try it and I told him I don't need someone in my life who's going to try to tell me what I can or can't do and left." Jessie told her.

"Maybe you and I could go out together sometime, I hate to say it, but Buzz is right, it could be dangerous, what if you fell off and got trampled by the horse?"

"I know he was right, he said the same thing" Jessie cried, "I can just get so stubborn when I'm arguing that I don't realize I'm wrong until later."

"I'm sure he'll understand, you've been together for a long time, surly this can't be the first time you've had an argument, right?" Emily asked.

"No, but it's the first time I've sort of told him I didn't need him, he looked so hurt." Jessie told her then buried her face against her knees and continued to cry.

"I'm sure he'll understand, just tell him the truth, that you got a little carried away and needed time to think things through." Emily said wrapping a comforting hand around Jessie's shoulders.

"You really think so?" Jessie asked looking up at Emily as she wrapped her hands around Emily's thumb.

"Of course, he's crazy about you, there's no way he'd stay upset about a little disagreement for very long." Emily replied.

"Thanks." Jessie said then asked, "Do you think I could sleep in here?"

"You don't want to go back and talk to Buzz tonight?" Emily asked.

"I'll apologize to him in the morning so he has plenty of time to calm down too." Jessie said, "And there's no place a toy feels safer or more at peace than when they're close to their owner, especially when they're upset."

"Well then of course you can stay." Emily replied, "I'm not your owner though, just your friend, you've become one of the best friends I've ever had and I haven't considered you something that could be owned anymore than any of my human friends, since the first time you came to life in front of me." Emily said as Jessie curled up next to her and she rested her hand over her back.

"Thanks." Jessie said as she wrapped one of her hands around Emily's finger, "You're the very best friend I've ever had too." she said before they both fell asleep.

Emily woke up the next morning to Jessie eagerly trying to shake her shoulder to wake her up, "What is it?" Emily asked.

"I've got an idea for the perfect way to apologize to Buzz, but I'd need a little help from you." Jessie told her.

"What do you have in mind?"

"Music, candle light and dancing. I'd just need your help getting the stuff set up." Jessie said.

"Sounds like a good idea, we can set it up in one of the spare rooms, I've got plenty of candles and I'm sure you could find some good dancing music on my iPod." Emily said.

A little while later they had set up Emily's iPod speaker and several candles in one of the spare rooms and Jessie was sitting on the kitchen table going through the music on Emily's iPod while Emily ate her breakfast.

"Okay, I've got a good play list put together, I think that's all we need to do." Jessie said.

"What about something different to wear?" Emily asked.

"I can't change what I'm wearing, I'm kind of sewn into my clothes. I hate that, other dolls get to change clothes and have whole wardrobes and I'm just stuck like this, never able to dress up. A lot of other toys seem to think I'm a tough old cowgirl and wouldn't like wearing dresses or looking pretty, but really, what girl doesn't want to dress up and look nice every once in a while?" Jessie said.

"Hmm, I've got an idea, how would you like to come to work with me today?" Emily asked.

"Why, what are you planning?" Jessie asked.

Emily grinned at her, "You'll see." she said as she set her dishes in the sink then carried Jessie into the sewing room and dumped a large tub of scrap material out on the floor, "Find something you'd like a dress out of." Emily told her.

"But a dress wouldn't look right with my clothes sticking out." Jessie said.

"Trust me, I've got a plan to take care of that." Emily said as she pulled out several pieces of material and started comparing the different shades.

Emily spent every spare moment that day while the kids were working on tests and out for recess working on her project. By the time she and Jessie got home that evening all she had to do was add a few finishing touches.

As it started to get dark outside Emily added the last detail and handed the dress to Jessie, "There you go, see how it fits."

Jessie slipped it on and Emily snapped the back and tied the belt in a bow at the back for her, "How do I look?" Jessie asked.

"Absolutely beautiful, one look at you and Buzz probably won't even remember that argument." Emily told her, "There is one more thing though, how about we do something different with your hair?" Emily asked as she picked up a roll of ribbon.

"Sure, what do you have in mind?" Jessie asked.

"Something simple but pretty." Emily replied as she cut the ribbon and Jessie unbraided her hair.

Ten minutes later Emily took Jessie up to the room they had set up and lit the candles, "You ready for me to go get Buzz?" Emily asked.

"Yep." Jessie said, "Oh and thank you for all this." She added.

"You're very welcome." Emily replied before heading to the toy room.

"Buzz, Jessie would like to talk to you." Emily said seriously, as she stepped into the toy room.

"She does?" Buzz asked sounding a little nervous as he walked over to her.

"Yep and you shouldn't keep her waiting, so come on." Emily told him.

"Okay." Buzz said shooting a worried look at Woody before following Emily out of the room.

Emily opened the door to the room Jessie was waiting in , "Go on in, she's waiting for you." she told Buzz.

"Are you sure? I don't see her." Buzz said glancing around the room.

"She's in there, now go on, don't make me carry you in there, she's not going to bite, I promise." Emily said.

Buzz stepped into the room and looked around then hesitated when he didn't see any sign of Jessie.

"Keep going, you've got to get farther into the room than that." Emily told him, trying not to smile.

Buzz continued to walk into the room until Jessie stepped out from behind the box she had been hiding behind right inside of the door so that Emily would be able to see Buzz's reaction too, "Buzz." Jessie said.

Buzz turned around, his eyes going wide, mouth opening and wings popping open as he stared at Jessie.

Jessie was wearing a red satin dress, the skirt was wide with layers of ruffles that came down to her ankles, the waist had a gold belt that tied in a bow at the back, the neck line was off her shoulders with a single gold rose at the center front. Covering from the sleeves to her wrists and from the neckline up to just above the collar of her shirt was material that nearly matched her skin and in the dim candle light it blended seamlessly with her skin. Her hair hung loose except for a red ribbon that was tied around just above her forehead and then down under her hair at the back, a gold rose was attached to it just above her ear.

"I'm sorry about arguing with you last night, I know you were right. Think you could forgive me?" Jessie asked as she walked over to Buzz.

"It's my fault to, I over reacted, I just couldn't bear the thought of you getting hurt. Of course I forgive you, if you'll forgive me." Buzz said.

"I already have." Jessie said and kissed him lightly, then stepped over to the iPod, turned it on and they began to dance.

Emily quietly shut the door then noticed Woody standing by her feet, "What are you doing here?" Emily asked.

"Just making sure Buzz was okay, he's been freaking out all day over that argument they had, thought Jessie might try to convince you to get rid of him." Woody replied.

"He really thought Jessie would want me to get rid of him over a little argument?" Emily asked.

"I don't think he actually believed it would happen, but whenever they fight his imagination runs wild with the worst possible outcomes." Woody told her.

"Poor guy." Emily said then asked, "So do you have any plans for this evening?"

"No, why?" Woody asked.

"Because I don't have anything that needs done and it seems like forever since the last time I played Monopoly and I need someone to beat." Emily told him.

"I'll play it with you, but there's no way you'll beat me." Woody said.

"Oh yeah? What makes you so sure of that?" Emily asked.

"I've been playing it longer than you've been alive." Woody replied.

"Yeah, did they invent it before or after you were made? Had they even invented the wheel yet when you were made?" Emily teased.

"Hey! I'm not that old." Woody said.

"I know, but you're the one bragging about how long you've been around, how could I resist turning it against you?" Emily asked grinning at him, before picking him up, setting him on her shoulder and heading downstairs.

A few days later Emily was sitting at the kitchen table grading school papers when Pete climbed on to the table, "What did you find me this time?" Emily asked.

"Just a few little things." he replied holding out a gold earring and a small diamond, "I was wondering if you'd mind if I kept these?"

"Of course not, I'm sure I never would have found them on my own, so there's no reason you can't have them." Emily replied then asked, "What do you want to do with them?"

Pete glanced around the room and towards the stairway door then stepped closer to Emily and whispered, "Buzz is going to ask Jessie to marry him and said he wished he could give her a proper ring. I told him I could find everything we'd need and make the ring."

"Oh that's a wonderful idea, if you need anything else to help with making it just let me know." Emily told him.

_A couple Weeks later_

"Okay guys, my uncle and grandmother will be here soon, so make sure you're quite up here and it would probably be best to go into toy mode if you hear anyone coming." Emily said as she walked into the toy room after having just given everyone in the doll room the same warning,

Emily glanced around the room to make sure no one was off running around the house where they might be seen, "Where is Jessie?" she asked when she didn't see her.

"She said she needed some time alone, she's probably in your room." Buzz told her.

"Okay, I'll go let her know what's going on." Emily said before shutting the door and going to her room.

When she got there Jessie was sitting on the windowsill turning something in her hands that glittered as the sun reflected off of it, "You okay?" Emily asked as she walked over to her.

"Of course I am, just thought I'd come enjoy a different view for a while." Jessie replied, trying to sound like her normal hyper, cheerful self, but Emily could still tell it was an act.

"Why don't you try telling me the truth this time, you know you can tell me anything." Emily said as she sat down at the desk.

"It's nothing, it's silly." Jessie replied.

"I highly doubt that anything that could upset you is nothing or silly." Emily replied.

Jessie hesitated for a moment then said, "It's been fifty eight years today since Emily abandoned me. Fifty eight years and it still upsets me and I can't help wondering where she is, if she's happy, if she ever thinks about me or if she's even still alive."

"You're first owner's name was Emily?" Emily asked.

"Yeah, she'd be in her seventies by now, I just can't help wanting to know what happened to her, what her life has been like." Jessie said as she twirled the thing in her hands around.

Emily's eyes went wide when she finally got a good look at what Jessie had in her hands, a small stick pin with a flower on it, the center was a small pearl and the petals were made of sapphires, "Where did you get that pin from?" Emily asked.

"My Emily stuck it down in my boot, she said I had to keep it safe for her, she must have forgotten it was in there when she abandoned me." Jessie replied.

"It looks a lot like one my great, great grandmother always wore when she got her picture taken. It had been given to her by her grandmother and then passed onto my grandma, but she lost it when-" Emily was cut off as the doorbell rang, "You should probably head back to the toy room while they're here." she said before heading down stairs to answer the door.

Once her uncle left Emily set out a plate of cookies and glasses of milk then sat down at the table with her grandmother, "So we're alone, will you tell me about Jessie now?" she asked.

"I suppose, you certainly seem eager to find out." her grandmother replied.

"It's been nearly three months since you said you'd tell me and you know how curious I am." Emily replied, "So why are you so determined to find the one that was yours?" she asked.

"This is going to sound completely crazy." her grandmother said.

"I've seen some pretty crazy stuff lately I doubt anything will surprise me at this point." Emily replied.

"Alright. I think she was alive." her grandmother said looking as if she was bracing herself to be laughed at or made fun of.

"Why would you have ever let great grandma make you get rid of her if you thought she was alive." Emily asked, earning a shocked, but grateful look from her grandmother.

"Because I thought I had imagined it, I thought it was just a childhood fantasy, but over the years the more I think about it the more I think it may have really happened."

"What exactly happened?" Emily asked.

"It was right after my dad died, I was only seven at the time and I had been really close to him and was devastated. I wouldn't eat or talk to anyone for several days, I just wanted my daddy back. I was curled up in bed crying and felt a hand start to brush the tears off of my face, when I opened my eyes Jessie was sitting there, alive. She told me that no matter what she'd always be there for me, that things would eventually get better and that my daddy wouldn't want me to close myself up like I was. He would always be watching over me from heaven and that he would want me to play with my friends and be happy and if I did then that would make him happy. We talked for a long time that night and as I was falling asleep Jessie said she wouldn't always be able to talk to me because toys aren't supposed to talk to people, but she'd always be there for me and would always care about me. I did what she said and started doing the things I use to do, she never did talk to me again and eventually I decided it must have been a dream, but there was always a small part of me that believed it had to have been real. That's why I want to find the one that was mine, so that I can make sure she's safe and will be well cared for, in a way she was my best friend as a child and helped me through one of the worst times of my childhood and a small part of me wants to believe that if I found her maybe she'd talk to me again." she explained, "You must think your old grandmother has lost her mind now, don't you?"

"Not at all." Emily replied then asked, "So how will you know if you've found your Jessie?"

"Do you remember that old flower pin that my grandmother use to wear?"

Emily's heart started to pound, "The one that her grandmother gave to her and she wore it in every picture that was taken of her and then she passed it to you?" she asked.

"And I would have passed it on to you and if I ever find my Jessie I will pass it on to you. When my grandmother died and the pin was given to me I gave it to Jessie to keep safe, I stuck it in-"

"Her boot." Emily finished her hands beginning to shake a little.

"Yes, how did you know that?" her grandmother asked.

"I'll explain in a minute, stay here I'll be right back." Emily said before quickly making her way upstairs.

* * *

I know, I'm horrible throwing in another cliffhanger, but without it the chapter seemed too short and I'm not quite done with the rest of grandma Emily's visit and didn't want to wait. I should have it done in the next couple of days, so being the review addicted writer that I am, if I get at least ten reviews on this chapter I'll go ahead and post the next chapter early instead of waiting until next weekend to post it.

Update; the next chapter is finished and ready to post, just two more reviews to go.


	9. Chapter 9

Oh well, I guess nine out of the ten reviews I asked for is close enough, thanks to everyone who reviewed on the last chapter and to everyone who has reviewed on the other chapters, reviews really help keep me motivated to keep writing.

* * *

Emily quickly rushed into the toy room and for a moment it seemed strange to her that they were all frozen the she had always thought toys should be, but now it seemed so strange to her, "Where is Jessie?" she asked and they all came to life.

"I'm right here." Jessie said walking over to her.

Emily knelt in front of her, "Why are your hands shaking?" Jessie asked.

"Because I think I'm in the middle of a miracle in the making." Emily replied, "Did you ever come to life in front of your Emily?"

Jessie hesitated for a moment then, looking down at her feet rather bashfully replied, "Well there was one time, she was only seven and her dad died, she was just heart broken and I couldn't just sit there and not comfort her. Why?"

"Did I ever tell you I'm named after my grandmother?" Emily asked.

Jessie's head shot up, her eyes wide, "You mean you think that your grandmother is my Emily?" Jessie asked.

"No, I don't think so, I know so, that pin in your boot is the same one I was telling you about that has been in my family for so many generations." Emily told her.

A shocked look suddenly crossed Jessie's face, "Woody said that you said your grandmother was forced to get rid of her Jessie."

"That's right, if her mother hadn't forced her to get rid of you she would have kept you for the rest of her life." Emily told her.

"Yee ha! She didn't want to get rid of me, she still cared about me, she still wanted me!" Jessie cried excitedly as she jumped up onto Emily's knee and hugged her, "Can I see her?" Jessie asked.

"I don't know, there's one problem with that, if she sees you and knows it's you she'll want to take you home with her." Emily told her.

Jessie's face quickly sobered, "Which would mean leaving everyone here, including Buzz. Maybe I could at least sneak downstairs so I can see what she looks like now." she said.

"There is one other possibility." Emily said.

"What?" Jessie asked.

"Well she said that she hoped if she found you again that you would talk to her again and since she refused to tell me about you talking to her until she was sure we were alone I doubt she'd tell anyone else. I'm sure she'd never ask you to leave Buzz once she knows about him." Emily told her.

"What if she wants Buzz and I to both go with her?" Jessie asked.

"Then it would be up to you to decided where you'd rather be." Emily replied.

"What do you think Woody?" Jessie asked walking over to where Woody and Buzz were standing.

"I think you should go for it, Emily is right, if she's kept your secret this long I'm sure she can be trusted." Woody replied.

Jessie excitedly hugged Buzz then grabbed his hand and Woody's and practically dragged them towards Emily, "Come on, you two have to meet her too."

Bullseye suddenly ran up to her and whinnied, "Of course you can come too." Jessie said.

Emily carefully picked them all up and started to head downstairs, "Alright guys, back in toy mode until I explain what's going to grandma, I don't want you guys giving her a heart attack." she told them and they all quickly complied.

When she got back to the kitchen she set them all down on the table.

"You never told me you had found more of them." her grandmother said then cocked an eyebrow, "What's with the space man?" she asked as she started to reach for Jessie.

Emily stopped her, figuring it would take forever to explain things once she found the proof that it was her Jessie, "He's Jessie's boyfriend and there's something I need to tell you." she said.

"How on earth did you decided that?" her grandmother asked.

"I didn't." she replied then taking a deep breath said, "They told me that."

"What?"

"It wasn't a dream, it wasn't an over active imagination, they really do come to life." Emily told her.

"You've seen them, you've talked to them, to more than one of them?" her grandmother asked, eyes wide with shock.

"Do you remember a few months ago when I told you about those guys who had broken in." Emily asked.

"Of course, I was so worried about how you were doing."

"I wasn't the one who shot the guy, Woody did, if it weren't for Woody, Jessie and Bullseye helping me out I probably would have died that night. After that there really wasn't any point in them not continuing to talk to me since there wasn't much chance I would ever think it had just been a dream or something and there's no one else around to find out about them. They've become my best friends since then." Emily told her.

"You've talked to all of them and you- you knew about the pin." her grandmother said tears beginning to rim her eyes.

Emily smiled, taking her grandmother's hand in hers, simply smiling and nodding her head slightly, "Are you ready for this, you're not going to have a heart attack if they suddenly come to life are you?" she asked.

"No, of course not, I'm ready." She replied lightly squeezing Emily's hand.

That was all the encouragement the toys needed as they started to sit up and Jessie slowly made her way over to her Emily, "You've changed so much, but your eyes are still just the same." she said as she reached into her boot and pulled out the pin, "I believe this belongs to you, I kept it safe for you just like you asked me to."

"Oh Jessie, I'm so sorry I gave you way, I didn't want to, I never should have let my mom make me get rid of you." grandma Emily said as she suddenly, but gently hugged Jessie.

"It's alright, at least now I know you didn't want to get rid of me." Jessie replied.

Jessie and grandma Emily spent the next couple of hours catching up until lunch time when Buzz suggested they all go outside for a picnic lunch and to get some fresh air.

Emily and her grandmother were talking when grandma Emily suddenly stopped and pointed over to where Jessie was sitting on a nearby log as Buzz slowly walked towards her, holding two large pink flowers behind his back, "They're really do make a cute couple." she said.

"They do, I'm so glad I was able to keep them together." Emily replied then they both fell silent as they watched what was happening.

Buzz walked up in front of Jessie and held out the flowers, "Oh Buzz they're beautiful." Jessie exclaimed then noticed something shining at the center of one of the flowers and picked it up.

Buzz dropped to one knee, setting the flowers aside and taking Jessie's hand in his, "Jessie, I knew the first time I saw you that I would give anything to be able to spend the rest of my life with you. Every year, every day, every moment that passes I fall more in love with you and nothing in this world could make me happier than to be able to call you my wife. Will you marry me?"

Jessie didn't say anything, she just threw herself into Buzz's arms and kissed him for a long moment, when they finally stopped kissing she said, "Of course I will, nothing could make me happier."

The rest of the day went by far too quickly as the girls set to work making wedding plans, "Jessie will need a wedding dress and Buzz will need a suit." grandma Emily said.

"Would you mind your wedding outfits being crocheted?" Emily asked.

"Of course not." Jessie replied.

"Why not use material?" grandma Emily asked.

"Because material if you cut it and it doesn't fit right you could end up having to start over again, with crocheting you can check the fit row by row and make adjustments as you go. Jessie you could easily enough make adjustments to a Barbie pattern, but with Buzz's space suit we'll have to design a pattern from scratch." Emily replied.

"Good point, do you have the yarn we'll need?" grandma Emily asked.

"I'm not sure, I'll have to check my tubs of yarn." Emily replied then headed into the sewing room and returned a few minutes later with a couple of balls of black and white sports yarn and a couple of crochet hooks, "Looks like we got lucky, I think this should be enough." Emily said then glanced up as there was a knock at the door and Buzz, Jessie, Woody and Bullseye dropped limply to the table.

Emily answered the door and said, "Oh uncle George couldn't you go for a nice drive in the country for a couple more hours before you take grandma away from me?"

"Actually there's a car at the car show that's going to be auctioned off tomorrow and I wanted to bid on it, so I got us a room at a hotel and I'll bring grandma back in the morning." George replied.

"You know you could have just stayed here and not had to spend the money on a hotel room." Emily said.

"I didn't want to inconvenience you, anyways it's too quite out here for me to sleep." George replied.

"Well then, you can stay at the hotel and grandma can stay with me. What do you think of that grandma?" Emily asked turning to her.

"Of course, I wouldn't miss a chance to spend some extra time with you." grandma Emily replied.

George took Emily's arm and lead her outside, "Are you sure you can handle her all night? The older she get's the crazier she get's, no doubt she's already been talking about that doll that she insists she's going to find, but she'll just keep going on and on about it all night. It can get a little irritating." George told her.

"Don't worry about it, it's never bothered me and she's going to have to find something else to annoy you with." Emily replied.

"Why is that?" George asked.

"Because I found her Jessie." Emily replied.

"How on earth did you convince her of that? I brought her a couple of those dolls and tried to convince her it was hers, but she would always insist that it wasn't."

"I didn't have to convince her, I really did find the one that was hers. Do you remember the flower stick pin that great, great grandma wore and disappeared right after it was given to grandma?" Emily asked.

"Yes, you're great grandmother complained about her losing that pin right up to the week she died." George replied.

"It's not lost anymore, grandma stuck it in Jessie's boot, that's how we know it's her Jessie." Emily explained.

"Oh my gosh, out of all the hundreds of those dolls that had to have been made and who knows how many have been thrown out, destroyed or sent over seas to collectors and you found the right one. What are the chances of that. Now I understand why she was so determined to find that doll, one of our family's oldest family heirlooms was hidden in it." George said in amazement.

"Yeah, it really is a miracle the way things worked out." Emily replied, deciding to let him think what he wanted about why grandma Emily had wanted to find Jessie.

"Alright, well if you're sure you two will be alright, I'll see tomorrow afternoon." George said.

"We'll be just fine." Emily replied.

After George said good night and left Emily and grandma Emily set to work, Emily designing a suit for Buzz while grandma Emily and Jessie worked on her wedding dress.

By early the next afternoon they had finished the clothes, "So what is a toy wedding like?" grandma Emily asked.

"Pretty similar to a human wedding from what I've seen, exchange vows and kiss the bride, usually the oldest toy performs the ceremony." Jessie explained then added, "I was thinking about doing it a little differently if you don't mind though."

"Its your wedding, why would I mind what you decide to do?" grandma Emily asked.

"I'd like you to be the one to marry us." Jessie said.

"Oh Jessie I would be absolutely honored to do that for you." grandma Emily replied.

Half an hour later all of the toys had gathered in the toy room, Emily had downloaded a wedding march to her iPod and set it up with the speakers, Mr. Potato Head had Emily's camera to take pictures of the wedding and grandma Emily was sitting on a cushion on the floor in front of the crowed of toys with Buzz standing in front of her, waiting for Jessie to come in from the hall.

"Are you sure I look alright?" Jessie asked as she fiddled with some of her hair that had been let down..

"You look beautiful." Emily assured her, "You just need one more thing."

"What's that?" Jessie asked.

"This." Emily said handing her a bouquet of ribbon roses and babies breath from her garden.

Jessie smiled, "Thank you, for everything, I never imagined I could be as happy as I am today and it's all because of you. You brought Buzz back to me when I thought I had lost him, you've given us a secure home where we know we won't be separated, you reunited me with Emily and now you're giving me a real wedding, with a real wedding dress, music and even flowers, it's more than I ever could have imagined or hoped for. It's more than any toy could ever hope for. I don't know how I can ever thank you enough for this."

"You're the best friend I've ever had, I'd do anything for you and the only thanks I want from you is you not missing game and movie night because you're too busy with Buzz." Emily said.

Jessie grinned, "I wouldn't miss girls night in for anything." she replied.

"Hey, you two coming before Buzz starts to think you're not coming?" Woody asked as he stepped out of the room.

"We're coming." Jessie said.

Emily started the music and Woody took Jessie's arm and walked her down the aisle to Buzz.

"Do you Buzz Lightyear take Jessie to be lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold, love and cherish, through the good and the bad, until death do you part?" grandma Emily said.

"I do." Buzz replied.

"Do you Jessie Pride take Buzz to be your lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold, love and cherish, through the good and the bad, until death do you part?"

"I most certainly do." Jessie replied.

"I now pronounce you husband and wife, you may kiss the bride." grandma Emily said.

Buzz pulled Jessie into a long passionate kiss, earning a few cheers and whistles from the crowed of toys.

The rest of the day seemed to go by so quickly that no one could believe when they realized it was time for George to pick up grandma Emily.

"I assume you won't be coming home with me, will you?" grandma Emily asked Jessie.

"I'd like to, but, I-" Jessie started.

"It's alright, I'm sure you would rather stay with your friends and would be much happier out here in the country than living in town in a cramped little duplex with nothing to see out the windows except for roads and other houses. Just promise me one thing." grandma Emily said.

"Anything." Jessie replied.

"Keep taking care of my granddaughter."

"I will, I promise." Jessie replied then jumped into grandma Emily's arms and hugged her as well as she could when they heard a car pull in to the drive way, "You'll come back and visit, won't you?" Jessie asked, barely managing to hold back tears.

"I promise I will and I'm sure I'll see you for Thanksgiving and Christmas at least. I love you Jessie."

"I love you too." Jessie replied before reluctantly going limp as George knocked at the door.


	10. Chapter 10

Not a very long chapter, but I swore I would get a chapter ready to post while staying at my great grandfather's farm, the same farm a lot of Emily's house is based on. So let me introduce you to some of the most fun and perverted toys I've ever had, I just couldn't resist including them, I would imagine they would be quite embarrassed by how they were designed.

* * *

"What do you have there?" Jessie asked as Emily walked into the toy room with a large box.

"Well, after I found out about you guys being alive I asked my mom about some other toys I had that got put in the attic at her house and she finally found them." Emily replied as she opened the box and started setting out several cars, jets and other vehicles.

"Vehicles rarely come to life, although I have met a few over the years, it's highly unlikely that many if any of these come to life." Woody told her.

"Oh they're much more than just vehicles." Emily replied, "Come on guys, I know you're alive, you're safe here." she said to the toys.

After a moment a tank and one of the jets suddenly transformed and lunged at each other, rolling around on the floor fighting. The other vehicles quickly transformed and stepped out of the way of the fight.

"Tell him I'm in charge!" the transformed jet yelled.

Emily grabbed one of them in each hand and separated them, "That's enough from both of you." she said, "How on earth did you last all these years in the same box?"

"Luckily the box was so cramped that they couldn't move or transform, unfortunately that means we all had to endure years of them arguing about which one of them should lead the Decepticons." a magenta car with orange and yellow flames, told her.

"Well their personalities are certainly show accurate." Emily replied, "So do the Decepticons and Autobots get along?"

"Only because we have to and occasionally fights will break out." he replied.

"Okay, here's how it's going to be, we're going to stick with the setup I always had in mind when I got all of you. Hot Rod you're in charge of the Autobots." she told the car, "Armada Starscream you're in charge of the Decepticons." Emily told another jet.

"What about me? I'm generation one, I should lead the Decepticons." the fighting jet, G1 Starscream demanded.

"This is an outrage! I am the true and proper leader of the Decepticons!" the tank, Galvatron exclaimed.

"Sorry, I was always a Starscream fan and thought he would make a good leader. As for you, G1 Starscream, you and the other Starscreams can be advisors or co-rulers to Armada. You will all answer to Woody, he's in charge around here, but as long as you don't cause any trouble he'll leave you alone. If anyone causes any fights or trouble, you'll be given three warnings and then the offending bot will be moved to the attic, alone." Emily told them.

"What about us?" a small police car standing on top of a large swat van asked.

Emily smiled, "That's easy Deckardo, you'll be in charge of all the Brave Police and GaoGaiGar toys." she told him.

"Do you still have Seia around?" McCrane, a crane truck asked.

"Oh, I can't believe I never thought about the possibility of her being able to come to life, I guess I just thought of her as a collectible and not a toy. Yes, I still have her, she should be in a box of collectible decorative stuff that I still need to unpack, in the attic." Emily replied, "Wait here, I think I know where the box is.

Several minutes later Emily returned and set a figurine of a brown haired woman wearing a tan skirt and suit jacket down in front of McCrane.

McCrane ran over to her and hugged her, "I've missed you so much Seia." he said as she came to life and returned the hug.

"I thought I'd never see you again, what's going on?" Seia asked glancing up at Emily.

"It's a long story, we can explain later. What's important is we're together again and can stay together now." McCrane told her.

"So I take it you two really are a couple, just like in the show?" Emily asked.

"Yes." McCrane replied.

"This one doesn't seem to be alive." Buzz said looking at the swat van.

"Its more of a suit of armor." Deckardo explained then combined with the swat van, becoming a much larger robot.

"Impressive, do the lights actually light up?" Jessie asked.

"Well, um, yes they do." Deckardo replied seeming a little uncertain.

"Oh my gosh I hadn't thought about that in years." Emily said blushing slightly, but also trying not to grin.

"As I recall you got quite a kick out of it, so did your mother and all of your aunts that you showed me to." Deckardo said.

"It's not my fault, who ever designed you had a twisted mind." Emily replied.

"What are you two talking about?" Jessie asked.

After a moment of hesitation Dekkado pressed a piece of plastic that stuck out right above where his legs split, causing a loud siren to start and his lights to light up.

For a moment there was a stunned silence until Jessie burst out laughing, Woody clapped a hand over his mouth as he started to laugh.

"That is so wrong." Buzz said.

"I know, but watching people's faces when you show them is so amusing." Emily replied.

"You know, your great grandfather use to make similar noises when you great grandmother touched him down there too." Jessie told Emily between laughing.

"Okay, I think that's more than I ever wanted to know about them." Emily replied.

"Me too, believe me I wanted to be anywhere but in that room." Jessie said.

"Do I even want to know what you're talking about?" Buzz asked.

"I'll tell you later." Jessie told him.

"I don't suppose you want me to tell them what you two do, do you?" Emily asked a fire engine EnRyu and crane HoyRyu.

"NO!" both quickly replied.

"Aw come on, now you've got me curious, what do they do?" Jessie asked.

"We're not combining just so you can all laugh at us." HoyRyu said.

Emily picked Jessie up and whispered, "They combine and the way they do it is just wrong, take a good look at them and after being stuck in my grandparent's room you may be able to figure it out."

A moment later Jessie's eyes went wide, "Oh my gosh, you gotta be kidding me, they wouldn't really make a kids toy like that." she said.

"Apparently they did." Emily replied, "My mom always use to say that EnRyu was really a girl, I even have a video somewhere of her playing with them and having them discus it."

"Oh you've got to show me that video sometime." Jessie said laughing so hard she nearly fell off of Emily's shoulder.

"I will." Emily said as she set Jessie back on the floor.

"Don't worry, your secrets safe with me." Jessie said, patting EnRyu on the shoulder as she walked past him.

"You didn't tell her about your mother?" EnRyu said.

"Don't worry, she won't tell anyone." Emily assured him, "Now you guys can get settled in, I have some work that needs done." She told them then left


	11. Chapter 11

"It's supposed to rain again today, who wants to go to school and play with the kids?" Emily asked as she walked into the toy room.

"We could go today, we didn't have anything planned to do today." Buzz volunteered.

"Sounds like a great idea." Jessie agreed, "What about you two?" she asked turning to Woody and Bullseye.

"Sure." Woody replied as he and Bullseye walked over to join them.

"Us too." Mr. Potato Head said as he, Mrs. Potato Head, Slinky and Rex joined them.

"Alright, let's go." Emily said as she let them all climb into a box.

At recess time Emily was surprised when the kids paired Buzz and Jessie as a couple while they played.

Noticing one of the kids had set Woody down she grabbed him, sat down at her desk and pulled up a large book, balanced it open on her desk so it blocked Woody from sight then glancing to make sure none of the kids were nearby asked, "Okay, I get Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head being paired up, but how on earth did the kids end up deciding to pair up Buzz and Jessie?"

"Kids can subconsciously pickup on strong emotions in toys, when Andy first got Buzz and I hated the attention he was getting, Andy picked up on that in the way he played with us, when we became friends that changed. Mr. Potato Head always really enjoyed being the bad guy and Andy picked up on that too. Shortly after I met Bo Andy started pairing us up, even before we admitted that we liked each other, it also made it easier to admit that I liked her, since I already knew from the fact that he paired us up every time he played with us that she must have felt the same way. It's the same thing with Buzz and Jessie, the kids just pick up on how much they love each other." Woody explained.

"Wow, I'll certainly never look at kids playing with toys the same way again." Emily said.

Over the next month the toys helped Emily finish harvesting her garden and canning the vegetables. In the evening or on weekends Emily would often take Jessie out riding with her, although Jessie still desperately wanted to try riding by herself. As they had done for the last three months Emily and Woody still spent every Friday afternoon and Saturday going to yard sales, flea markets and auctions, but had had no luck finding Bo or any of the other toys.

"I doubt there are any sales, I think November is just too late in the year and too cold." Emily said as she got into her car after work and Woody climbed out of her purse to sit on the seat.

"I Guess you're right, there weren't any sales listed in the news paper this morning." Woody said as they pulled out of the school parking lot.

"Then again I could be wrong." Emily said a moment later as they turned a corner and spotted a large moving sale sign.

Woody glanced out the window then suddenly climbed up onto the arm rest to get a better look.

"Woody, get down before someone sees you!" Emily exclaimed.

"There's a lamp on the middle table, I can't see the actual lamp, but the shade is just like the one that was on Bo's lamp." Woody told her as he jumped down and into her purse.

"Alright then, let's go take a look." Emily said as she got out of the car and headed straight for the table Woody had pointed out. She felt guilty when for a moment she hoped it wouldn't be Bo, she had come to love the time she got to hang out and talk with Woody while they looked for Bo and couldn't imagine losing that time with him once they found her.

When she got closer to the table she found that the lamp was just a plain, vase shaped lamp, "Sorry Woody." she whispered as she headed over to a box of toys at the far end of one of the tables.

"It's alright." Woody replied.

"Anyone familiar in here?" Emily whispered as she knelt next to the box of toys.

"No- wait, the Etch A Sketch, pull it up here a minute." Woody said, "Etch?" he asked as Emily held it closer to her purse.

Nothing happened for a moment and then the knobs started turning and "Woody?" appeared on the screen.

Emily grinned, "Friend of your's I take it?"

"Yes and Etch was bought by the same person who bought Bo." Woody replied then asked Etch, "Is Bo still here, do these people own her?"

There was a long pause then, "No." appeared on the screen.

"Alright, let's go then." Woody said disappointment evident in his voice, as he disappeared back into Emily's purse.

Emily paid the man running the sale for Etch then got back into her car and started to head home.

Woody climbed out of the purse as soon as the car had started and sat next to Etch who was laying on the seat, "What happened to Bo? Did they sell her? Do you know where she is?" he asked.

Emily pulled the car over into the driveway of a cemetery so she could see what the response would be.

"She's gone." Etch wrote.

"What do you mean she's gone?" Woody asked.

Etch hesitated a moment then wrote, "We were bought for two little girls, they loved Bo and she always said they were the sweetest girls she'd ever seen. She always missed you, but she was happy watching over those girls. Then one night they got a little wound up and had a pillow fight, it was an accident, the girls were heartbroken when it happened. A pillow hit her and knocked her off of the nightstand, I don't know if she would have even had time to realize what was happening. She shattered so badly that there was no way to repair her, I checked when the girls left the room to tell their mom what happened, there was no sign of life left."

Woody and Emily stared at Etch for a long time, both too horrified to say anything.

Emily finally reached over and rested a hand around Woody's shoulders, "I'm so sorry Woody."

"At least I know what happened to her." Woody said sadly as he climbed back into Emily's purse and pulled it shut.

Once they got back to the house Woody climbed out of Emily's purse, "I think I'm going to go for a walk." Woody told her.

"Alright, I'll leave the back door unlatched so you can get in." Emily told him.

"Thanks." Woody replied before jumping out of the car.

Emily took Etch to the toy room, hiding him behind her back as she stepped into the room, "Come over here guys, I got you something." she said.

"What is it?" Jessie asked.

Just someone I found at a yard sale." Emily replied as she pulled Etch out and set him on the ground.

Everyone quickly gathered around him and started talking until Buzz stepped away, "He was sold with Bo, if you found him did you find her too?" he asked.

"No, he said she had been broken. Once we got home Woody left to go for a walk, do you think he'll be okay?" Emily asked.

"I'm sure he'll be fine after a while. At least he knows she's gone and he can move on now." Buzz told her.

"I hope you're right." Emily said.

By bedtime that night Emily was worried sick about Woody, he had been gone for nearly seven hours. Saying a quick prayer that he was safe and would come home soon Emily reluctantly went to bed.

A few hours later Emily woke and noticed movement on the floor by the door. Woody quietly walked towards the bed, hesitated a moment then started to leave then turned around and came back, almost making it to the bed before seeming to change his mind and turned to leave again.

Emily reached down, grabbed him before he could get very far and set him on the bed, "Jessie told me how toys like to be close to the people they think of as their owners when they're upset. You're welcome to stay if that's why you were in here or if you want to talk." Emily told him.

"Thanks." Woody said sitting down against Emily's arm, "I just can't help feeling guilty."

"Guilty for what?" Emily asked.

"I've kept hoping that I'd find her again someday for so many years, but after the last few months of looking for her and finding no sign of her I was kind of starting to accept that it was probably impossible and that we would never find her. Now I just feel so confused, sad that she's gone, but relieved that I know what happened to her and I don't have to wonder about it any more. How can I feel any relief in knowing that she's dead?" Woody asked.

"Because you don't have to worry about what's happening to her or if you'll ever find her, you can finally move on. It's nothing to feel guilty about, sometimes it's just easier to know what happened to someone instead of never knowing for sure." Emily told him, resting her fingers over his hand and leaning her forehead lightly against his, "You're tough, you'll pull through this, even if it takes a while and I'll always be here if you need me."

"I hope you're right." Woody said.


	12. Chapter 12

Emily looked up from her desk as one of her students walked into the classroom with their mother and over to her desk, "Can I help you Mrs. Harris?" she asked.

"Becky was telling me that you bring in new toys for them to play with when the weather is bad. My sister in law and I were cleaning out our kids toy boxes to make room for the stuff they'll get for Christmas and I thought the kids might like to have some of the toys we were getting rid of." Mrs. Harris replied.

"I'm sure they'd love them. Thank you." Emily replied as she took the box of toys and set it behind her desk.

Later that afternoon while the kids where in the cafeteria for lunch she pulled out the box to see what was in it. There were Lego's and a few stuffed animals, a piggy bank with a big pink bow around it's neck and a Barbie with some extra clothes. As she moved the clothes aside she found another piggy bank and behind it huddled together in the corner of the box were three little green aliens. Emily took the pig and aliens out, setting them on her desk then set the box back on the floor.

Emily walked over to the door, glanced out to make sure there was no one in the hall then locked the door and walked back to her desk, "You wouldn't happen to the evil Dr. Pork Chop and the adopted children of the Potato Heads would you?" Emily asked.

For a split second the pigs eyes seemed to get wide in shock and then returned to normal so quickly that if she had blinked she would have missed it, "It's alright, you can talk to me, I know your alive and if you're the toys I think you are Woody's told me all about you. and we've been looking for you." Emily told them.

"You know Woody?" Hamm asked soundly less than trusting.

"And Jessie, Buzz, Bullseye, Slinky, Rex and the Potato Heads." Emily replied, "Oh and Etch, we found him at a yard sale about a month and a half ago." she added.

"Daddy?" all three aliens said.

"Yep and I'll take you home with me so you can see everyone. You can stay with me and I'll make sure you all stay together." Emily told them.

"You'll take the four of us home with you permanently?" Hamm asked not sounding quite sure about the idea.

"Yes, except for when the weather is bad and then if you want to come play with the kids I'll bring you back, unless you'd rather stay here, but I'm sure the others would like to see you again." Emily replied.

"Well I sort of have a wife and kids-" Hamm started to say.

"Wait a minute, kids?" Emily asked.

"Well technically they're her kids, they came with her, but I think of them as my own." Hamm replied.

"She was in the box with you?" Emily asked.

"Yeah." Hamm replied.

"And the kids too?"

"Yes."

"Well then there's no reason I can't take them home too. I take it she's the other bank?" Emily asked him.

"Yeah, and the kids will be right with her." Hamm replied.

Emily pulled out the other piggy bank and saw two small piglets that had been hidden underneath her, one of which also had a pink bow around her neck. As she pulled them out she realized they were little rubber, pig shaped coin purses that split open along their back so coins could be put in.

"So do they have names?" Emily asked.

"Henrietta or Etta for short and the twins are Ruth and Rutherford." Hamm told her.

"Well it's nice to meet all of you." Emily said then asked, "Would you guys mind waiting to see the others for a few days?"

"Why?" Hamm asked.

"Well it's only a few days until Christmas and I thought it would be a great surprise for the others." Emily said, then added, "Plus I haven't really found gifts for everyone yet."

"Oh I think that would be a splendid idea." Etta replied.

"Great, I'll sneak you guys up to the attic when we get home and you can stay there until Christmas." Emily told them, "I don't want the kids to see you and then wonder why I didn't leave you here, will you be alright in my desk draw until I go home?" she asked as the bell rang.

"We'll be fine." Hamm replied.

On the day before Christmas Eve Emily stepped into the toy with a couple of presents, "Okay, everyone gather around. I've got a couple presents for you and I'll be leaving in a couple of hours to spend Christmas with my family, so I want to go a head and give them to you."

"Wow, we've never gotten presents before." Jessie said as she ran over.

"Where is Woody?" Emily asked when he wasn't in the group of toys that had gathered around her.

"Who knows, he disappeared again." Jessie replied.

"Without telling anyone where he was going or when he'd be back." Mr. Potato Head said.

"He's just got a lot on his mind right now." Buzz said.

"But he's been disappearing like this for almost two months now, I know he's upset about Bo, but couldn't he at least let us know when he's just going to disappear? There's got to be something we can do to help him through this if he'd just let us." Mrs. Potato Head said.

"Every time I try to talk to him about it he just says he doesn't feel like talking." Slinky said.

"That's it, we've got to find him before I leave, maybe grandma can talk to him, she knows what it's like to lose someone you love that much, maybe she can help him." Emily said.

"I don't know that it will be that easy, but I guess it's worth a try." Buzz said.

"So do we look for him first or open the presents without him?" Jessie asked.

"Go ahead and open the presents, I don't want to leave them stuck in there for too long." Emily replied.

"Them? You brought us some new friends?" Jessie asked.

"Sort of." Emily replied.

The toys quickly opened the presents which included a stunt track for the cars the Jessie loved to use as skateboards, a videogame system and a few games and a few board games. Once they had finished opening those Emily set the last box in front of them, "Why don't we let Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head open this one?" she said.

The others stepped back as the Potato Heads unwrapped the present and opened the box. As soon as they started to pull the flaps back they were tackled by the three aliens, "My babies!" Mrs. Potato Head exclaimed.

"How did you find them?" Mr. Potato Head asked.

"I didn't, the mother of one of my students brought them in for the kids to play with." Emily replied.

"Guess no one cares that I'm here too." Hamm said as he stepped out of the box followed by Henrietta and the twins.

"My old partner in crime, never thought I'd see you again." Mr. Potato Head said.

After everyone had been introduced Emily left to finish packing and to look for Woody, although she had no luck finding him.

She was just carrying the last of her stuff out to the car, while Buzz, Jessie and Bullseye climbed into the front seat, when she noticed Woody come out of the horse barn and head towards the house, "There you are, I was beginning to think you weren't going to show up." Emily said as she picked him up and set him on her shoulder.

"What are you doing?" Woody asked as she quickly made her way into the house.

"Taking you to see the Christmas presents, you've got about five minutes to visit before we're leaving." she told him.

"I wasn't really planning on going with you." Woody told her.

"Too bad, you're coming, you've been moping around and disappearing for too long, I think a vacation will do you some good." Emily told him as she opened the door to the toy room and set him down, "Don't let him disappear again, he's leaving with me in five minutes." Emily told the other toys before she left to finish loading the car.

When they got to grandma Emily's house, Buzz, Jessie, Bullseye and Woody all climbed into a small suitcase and Emily took them inside.

Once Emily got into the house she asked, "Is anyone else here?"

"No, did you bring them?" Grandma Emily asked.

"Of course I did." Emily replied as she opened the suitcase.

As soon as it was open Jessie jumped out and into grandma Emily's arms, "I missed you so much." Jessie told her, hugging her as well as she could.

"I missed you too." grandma Emily told her.

The rest of the day was spent visiting, playing games together and then that evening when they were sure no one would show up to visit, grandma Emily introduced everyone to her collection of Woody's Round Up toys who had started coming to life around her after she had returned after finding out about Jessie and had told them she knew they were alive.

"What's wrong with them?" Jessie asked looking at a Woody and Jessie who hadn't come to life.

"I don't know, according to the others they were like that when I brought them home and have never come to life. There's a Pete in the other room and a couple other antique toys that I've gotten that are like that too, but none of the others know why." grandma Emily replied.

"Have you ever seen anything like this?" Emily asked Woody.

"No, I've seen toys of vehicles or other normally inanimate objects that don't come to life, but I've never seen a human based toy that didn't come to life." Woody replied.

"That's what the others have told me too." grandma Emily said.

Emily woke up early the next morning and found her grandmother already awake and in the kitchen.

"Would you like a cup of hot chocolate?" grandma Emily asked.

"Of course, it is one of my favorite traditions." Emily replied, when ever she had stayed with her grandmother they were always the first two awake and would have hot chocolate.

As they sat down at the table to dink their hot chocolate Emily asked, "Do you think you could talk to Woody for me?"

"About what?"

"A little over a month and a half ago he found out his girlfriend who had been sold years ago died and I don't think he's handling it very well." Emily replied.

"I know I didn't have a lot of time to get to know him when I stayed with you, but I didn't notice any difference yesterday." grandma Emily replied.

"I know, when he's around other people he acts normal, but ever since he found out he just keeps disappearing for hours at a time or sometimes all day. I know he's got to be hurting, but I can't imagine spending that much time alone thinking about her can be good for him and I don't know how to help him. I just thought since you know how it feels to lose someone you're that close to that maybe you could help him" Emily replied.

"Oh the poor thing, I'll talk to him tonight after the others are asleep." grandma Emily replied.

"Thank you, I've been so worried about him." Emily told her.

"Don't worry, I'm sure he'll be alright."

The next morning Emily met her grandmother in the kitchen for hot chocolate again, "So, did you get a chance to talk to Woody?" Emily asked.

"Yes, I did." grandma Emily replied.

"And?"

"It took me a while to pry anything out of him and I finally had to promise not to tell anyone what he told me." grandma Emily replied.

"Why would he do that?"

"Because there's a lot more to what's bothering him than just finding out that Bo was dead. As long as there was a chance that she was still alive and that you might find her someday he was able to try to focus on her, but now that he knows she's gone and he can move on, it's brought up some feelings that he's just not sure how to handle." grandma Emily told her.

"That's all you're going to tell me, is there anything I can do to help him?" Emily asked.

"Not really, I don't even know what to tell him or how to help him deal with it, just be there for him. While you want to be helpful you can help me get Christmas dinner started though."

"Alright."

A little while later Jessie joined them and they all three spent the morning cooking and talking.

The rest of the day flew by as the family gathered for Christmas and stayed until late in the evening. The next morning Emily was the first one up and had the hot chocolate made by the time her grandmother came into the kitchen with Jessie sitting on her shoulder.

"Did you two sleep at all last night?" Emily asked.

"Of course not, we still have so much catching up to do and with you leaving this afternoon how could we have possibly slept?" grandma Emily asked.

"I made her get a couple hours of sleep and promise to take a nap after we leave." Jessie said.

"Good, yesterday was a long day, I think we could all use a day off just to relax." Emily said.

The next couple of hours the three of them spent talking and making plans for grandma Emily to stay at the farm for a few weeks in the spring when a lot of the bulbs she had planted when she lived there would be blooming.

Far too quickly it came to be time for Emily to head home and they all reluctantly said goodbye to grandma Emily.


	13. Chapter 13

"You guys behave, I'll be back later." Emily said, stopping in the toy room before heading down stairs.

"We always behave." Jessie replied with a mischievous grin as she came up behind Buzz and wrapped her arms around him.

"Sure you will." Emily said glancing around the room, "Did Woody disappear again?" she asked.

"Of course he did." Mr. Potato Head replied.

"At least he knows where the spare house key is, I guess he'll come back when he's ready too." Emily said then headed downstairs.

Just as she came down into the kitchen the door opened and Woody came in, "You know, you really should let someone know when you're going out instead of just disappearing." Emily told him.

"Sorry about that, I just have a lot on my mind." Woody replied.

"Anything you want to talk about?" Emily asked, not really expecting him to, but to curious about what he had told her grandmother to not at least try.

"No, it's nothing." Woody replied.

"Yeah, sure it's nothing, that's why you keep disappearing to think about it." Emily replied, "If you won't talk to me then talk to Buzz or someone. We're all starting to worry about you."

"Well don't worry about me, I'm just a toy I'm not worth you worrying about." Woody replied as he started to head towards the stairs.

Emily grabbed him and set him on the table, "You are not just a toy, you're one of the best friends I've ever had and I will worry about you whether you like it or not." she told him then glanced out the window as a car pulled into the driveway.

"Who is that?" Woody asked.

"Mrs. Bordner, the first grade teacher isn't going to be able to come back after Christmas break because she's been put on bed rest until she has her baby. That would be Andrew, her replacement, we're going out to lunch and I'm giving him the basic run through of the curriculum the school uses and then if the principles plane was on time we're meeting him at the school to give him a tour." Emily explained.

"You're on a first name basis with this guy?" Woody asked.

"Not really, I just don't remember what his last name was, I was only told yesterday that the other teacher who was supposed to be handling this has the flu so they asked me to take care of it." Emily replied.

"I'm going with you." Woody told her.

"What? Why? We're just going out to lunch and back to the school." Emily told him.

"And he's driving you there?" Woody asked.

"Yes." Emily replied.

"And if the principle isn't back you'll be going to the school alone with him?" Woody asked.

"Yes, so what?" Emily asked.

"So I don't think you should be going anywhere alone with some guy who you know nothing about." Woody replied.

"I can take care of my self, I'll be fine. You're just paranoid." Emily told him.

"Sure, that's why you know about us. I've seen enough on the news and through the years to know what they're capable of and I don't want to see you get hurt or killed." Woody replied.

Emily glared at him as there was a knock at the door, "There were two men and they snuck up on me, this is completely different, there's only one of him and from what little I've heard he's an excellent teacher and quite nice. You're not my father or big brother so stop acting like it, I'll be fine." she whispered harshly then walked over to answer the door.

"Hi, Emily Hansen I presume?" Andrew asked.

"Yes, you must be Andrew." Emily said.

"Yep." he replied.

"Let me just grab my purse and then we can go." Emily told him as she turned to pick her purse up off of one of the chairs and noticed that Woody must have made a run for the stairs instead of going into toy mode where he had been on the table.

When they got to the school there was no sign of the principle so Emily opened her purse to get out the key she had been given then quickly turned her back to Andrew as she tried to find the key without knocking Woody out of the purse which was much smaller than the one she usually carried him in at yard sales, "You are so dead when we get home." she whispered.

"What did you say?" Andrew asked.

"Nothing, I'm just having a hard time finding the key, I'm sure it's down in here somewhere." she replied glancing back at him, when she looked back at the purse the key was in Woody's hand. She took it and then quickly closed her purse and unlocked the door.

"Your room is right here Emily said as she led him down the hall and mine is right across the hall, so if you need anything while your getting settled in just let me know. The kids sometimes come over to my room during recess when they can't go outside, I bring in some extra toys for my kids and apparently word has spread that my room has the best toys." Emily told Andrew.

"What do you think you were doing?" Emily demanded as she opened her purse after Andrew had left.

"I was making sure you were safe." Woody replied as he climbed out of the purse.

"I told you I'd be fine and I was. What if he had seen you, how would I have explained why you were in there?"

"You're a teacher, you could have just told him you had taken me to school with you and forgot to take me out of your purse." Woody said.

"Right, I just happened to have a toy stuffed into a purse that it barely fit into because I didn't notice that it was in there when I put the key in the purse even though with you in there it made it almost impossible to get anything in or out of the purse. That's just something anyone would miss, if they were blind maybe." Emily retorted.

"He didn't see me so it doesn't really matter anyways. I was just worried about your safety." Woody said.

"Oh, you're worried about me, but earlier you were telling me not to worry about you?" Emily demanded.

"I'm just a toy-"

"Fine you're just a toy, it's not your job to worry about or look after me, so if I'm not allowed to worry about you then stop worrying about me." Emily told him before storming off upstairs.

"Are you okay?" Jessie asked as she came into Emily's room a little while later.

"I'm fine." Emily replied quickly wiping the tears from her face.

"If you're fine why are you crying?" Jessie asked as she climbed up onto the bed.

"Woody and I had a fight." Emily said and told her about it.

"I just don't know what to do anymore, I want to help him deal with whatever is bothering him, but how can I do that if he won't tell me what it is?" Emily asked.

"I know, we're all worried about him, maybe I can get Buzz to follow him next time he sneaks out and see if he can get anything out of him. Until then all you can do is try to be there for him when he'll let us and hope things get better." Jessie told her.

"Alright, I guess you're right." Emily replied.

A few days later was game night, one of the few times they could count on Woody always being there. Buzz, Woody and Emily had just been soundly beaten by Jessie at Monopoly and were starting to put the game away when the phone rang.

Emily answered the phone and a moment later her face paled and her eyes filled with tears, "Thank you for letting me know uncle Charles." she said then quickly hung up the phone before leaning back against the wall and slid down to the floor, burring her face against her knees as she started to cry.

"Emily, what's wrong?" Woody asked quickly jumping off of the table and resting a hand on her arm.

Emily looked up and found four very concerned looking toys standing around her, "It- it's grandma, she had a heart attack, she tried to call uncle Charles, but when he answered the phone there was no one there, he went over to check on her and called an ambulance and tried to do CPR on her, but they couldn't bring her back." she managed to tell them as she struggled to keep from sobbing.

"No." Jessie whispered, tears beginning to fill her eyes as well, "I finally found her again after all these years and now she's gone." she cried as Buzz pulled her into his arms and held her.

"At least you did find her and know that she always loved you." Buzz told her as Bullseye came over and nuzzled against her side.

Woody climbed up to sit on Emily's shoulder and gently stroked the back of her head comfortingly, "It's going to be alright, she had a good long life and from what I've seen and heard it was a pretty happy one too."

"But it's not right, she was healthy and still so full of life, there was no warning, no signs that this could happen, no time to say goodbye or tell her how much I loved her and how much she meant to me." Emily said looking up at Woody.

Woody gently brushed a tear from her cheek and said, "She new you loved her just as much as she loved you, there's no doubt in my mind of that."

"I know, it's just so sudden, she was more than just my grandmother, she was my best friend and the one person I always felt understood me when no one else did." Emily said as she reached out to pet Bullseye who had come over and stood up with his front feet on her leg.

"It's getting late and I still have to go to work in the morning, we should get to bed." Emily said struggling to hold back more tears as she slowly got up so she wouldn't knock Woody down and picked up the other three.

"Are you going to be okay?" Emily asked Jessie as she set them down in the toy room and knelt down to let Woody jump off of her shoulder.

Jessie hugged her as well as she could, "I think so and I've got Buzz if I'm not, what about you, will you be okay?" she asked.

"I don't have much choice." Emily said then added, "I'll be fine."

As soon as she got to her room Emily collapsed into bed unable to hold back the tears anymore.

Emily had cried for what seemed like forever, but just couldn't fall asleep, all she could think about was the fact that she would never get to see her grandmother again, no more all night talks on the phone after a bad day, no more secrets shared just between the two of them, no more stories about her great and great, great grandparents or her grandmothers childhood, no more stories of what her mother had been like as a baby. No more weekends spent hanging out baking and playing games while uncle Charles went to his car shows. No more advice on the best places to plant different kinds of flowers or how to get them to grow back healthier and bigger, no more secret ways to get vegetables to grow twice as big as anyone else's. There were so many things she had wanted to ask her grandmother about, but hadn't gotten the chance yet or had had the chance, but had decided something else need done more at the time. An entire lifetime of memories and knowledge and now so much of it was lost forever.

Emily heard her door creek as it was pushed open enough to allow a toy through and she rolled over to face it, expecting it to be Jessie. Instead Woody climbed up onto her bed and said, "I thought you might not want to be alone."

Emily managed a half smile and nodded her head, not trusting her voice to work properly then she pulled Woody to her, his back against her chest, just below her chin with her left arm wrapped around him and her hand wrapped around his right arm and hand.

Woody wrapped his right hand around her thumb and his left arm over her wrist and gently stroked the back of her hand, letting his head rest against her cheek, "It's going to be alright, you'll make it through this, you just have to hang in there, things will get better." he told her as she continued to cry.

When Emily had finally cried herself to sleep Woody lightly kissed her cheek and whispered, "You're strong, you're going to make it through this and until then I'll be right here for you."

A few hours later it started to storm and the thunder got loud enough to wake Emily, she silently slipped out of bed, walked over to the window and opened the curtain, "When I was a kid grandma and I would always sit by the picture window in the living room and watch the lightning, we both loved big loud storms." she said leaning her forehead against the window as she began to cry.

Woody sat on the edge of the bed feeling completely useless, he wanted nothing more than to be able to hold Emily in his arms and comfort her, but all he could do was sit there and hope she would come back to the bed so he could at least hold her hand. At that moment he would have given anything to be big enough to walk over to her and just hold her.

Emily heard a startled yelp and the sound of something hitting the floor behind her. She expected to turn around to find Florida had gotten onto the bed and jumped at Woody knocking them both onto the floor. She turned around, ready to scold Florida, instead she let out a startled gasp and stood there staring, too shocked to do much else.

Woody was on the floor as she had expected, but that was where the similarities between what she had expected and what she was seeing ended. Woody was staring at his hands, looking just as shocked and confused as Emily felt, "Woody what- how- what happened?" she finally managed to get out.

Woody looked up at her, a slight smile crossing his lips, "I don't know," he said as he stood up and stepped over to her, gently brushing a tear from her cheek with his thumb, "I just wanted to be able to hold you and comfort you and all of a sudden this happened."

Emily took a step back to get a better look at him, he looked exactly the same except that he was now a few inches taller than her, "I don't know how this is possible, but I'm glad it is." she said as she threw her arms around him.

"So am I." Woody said wrapping his arms around her.

They stayed like that for a while, grateful for the comfort that the ability to be in each others arms gave them, watching the storm until it started to subside and they got back into bed.

"You make a good pillow." Emily said as she started to doze off, her head laying on Woody's chest and one arm wrapped around him.

"Of course I do, I may be bigger, but I'm still just cloth and stuffing." he said.

"That's just what you're made out of, but there's a lot more to you than just that." Emily told him before finally falling asleep.

* * *

The second half of this chapter was written last July after my grandma broke her hip and got an infection while in the hospital and died, I cried the whole time I wrote it and teared up proof reading it now. Although I wasn't as close to my grandmother as Emily is, because she lives on the other side of the state, but I always wanted the chance to get to know her better, had so much I still wanted to ask her and her death was a shock, even though she was 90 she was still in good health and living on her own, I never imagined I wouldn't get another chance to see her at least one more time.


	14. Chapter 14

This will probably be the last chapter I post for a little while, I'll be leaving on Tuesday to stay with my aunt and uncle at my great grandpa's farm and there's no internet accesses there and last time I stayed with them I was there for about two weeks. On the bright side last time I was there I got a ton of writing done, so I should have new chapters ready to post for a bunch of my stories when I get home.

* * *

The next morning Emily woke up to find herself still wrapped in Woody's arms, "Woody, it's time to get up." she said.

"I had the strangest dream." Woody said as he started to wake up.

"Are you sure it was a dream?" Emily asked entwining her fingers with Woody's.

Woody's eyes suddenly flew open, "This is impossible." he said after a moment of stunned silence.

"So is toys that come to life, at this point I have a hard time believe anything is truly impossible. Except maybe me being to work on time if I don't get ready to leave soon." Emily said as she reluctantly slipped out of Woody's arms.

A little while later she was standing in front of her vanity, brushing her hair when Jessie came into the room, "How are you doing?" Jessie asked climbing up onto the vanity.

"As well as can be expected I guess." Emily replied, "Maybe a little better." she added as she looked into the mirror and could see Woody still sitting on her bed then she noticed Buzz come into the room, suddenly freeze then turn his full attention to Woody.

He just stood there, mouth opening and closing soundlessly for a long moment, "How- what-, how did,- Woody?" he finally managed to stammer out.

That was enough to draw Jessie's attention, her eyes growing huge and mouth dropping open when she saw Woody, "How on earth did he end up like that?" she finally asked.

"I don't know, one second I was watching Emily cry and feeling useless the next I was like this." Woody replied.

"Wow, so can you go back to being you're original size?" Jessie asked.

"I don't know." Woody replied.

"Well try it, I have a feeling I'm going to need you there in my purse to hold my hand if I'm going to get through the day without breaking down in front of the kids." Emily said already having a hard time fighting back tears just thinking about her grandmother.

A moment later Woody returned to his normal size then bigger for a moment to make sure he could then back to toy sized.

"Guess you can do that whenever you want now." Emily said.

"How do you do it?" Jessie asked.

"I just thought about wanting to be smaller or bigger and it happened." Woody replied.

"This is totally unfair, I can't do it." Jessie said a minute later.

"We'll figure it out later, right now I've got to see who's going to play with the kids and get to work." Emily said as Woody climbed into her purse and she headed down the hall to the toy room.

At lunch time the kids were playing when Penny and Jenny, a set of twins came over to her desk with Rex and Woody.

Penny suddenly had Rex grab a piece of candy that was sitting on her desk and Jenny had Woody chase after him.

A couple minutes later Jenny came back and had Woody hand Emily the candy back, "My hero, thank you so much sheriff." Emily said.

"Why I'd do anything for the prettiest teacher around these parts." Jenny had Woody reply then had him kiss Emily's hand, then she whispered, "He really likes you and want's to know if you'll be his girlfriend, but he's to nervous to ask you himself right now."

Before Emily could respond to that Penny yelled "Oh no, the dinosaur is going to eat my book, Woody help!" from her desk where she had Rex biting her school book and Penny quickly ran over to her with Woody.

That afternoon after Emily had gotten home from work Woody had offered to hang the laundry out for her while she took care of some other chores, but once he was in the back yard hanging the clothes Emily had found herself distracted and stuck staring out the laundry room window watching him.

"What are you staring at? Some hot guy sneak into the back yard, cause that's exactly how your great grandmother use to look at your great grandf-" Jessie stopped as she made it up into the window to look out, "Oh my gosh, you're in love with Woody." she said.

"No, that's- that's crazy." Emily replied.

Jessie just turned around, crossed her arms and stared at Emily.

"It's crazy and impossible." Emily said then with a little less certainty, "Although maybe not as impossible as I would have thought before last night."

"So I was right, you are in love with him." Jessie asked.

"I- I guess so, until now I was able to just ignore my feelings, I mean I'm a human he's a toy it couldn't possibly work out. Now that he can suddenly become the same size as a human it just doesn't seem so impossible any more and I'm having a harder time trying to ignore my feelings for him." Emily replied.

"So tell him how you feel." Jessie said.

"I can't, what if he didn't feel the same way? It would just make things uncomfortable between us. Anyways he still hasn't gotten over finding out Bo is gone, so I highly doubt there's any chance he has any feelings for me aside from friendship. Maybe I'll tell him eventually if I think there's any chance he feels the same way, but not now." Emily told her.

Sighing Jessie said, "Alright, I guess you have a point."

"Now I have work to do before I leave." Emily said glancing out the window at Woody one more time before letting Jessie climb onto her shoulder and leaving the room.

"I'll be back in a couple hours." Emily told Woody as she set her purse on the kitchen counter where he hopefully wouldn't be able to sneak into it.

"Where are you going?" Woody asked.

"Andrew has some questions about the curriculum and invited me over to his house for dinner and to-"

"You're going to his house, alone?" Woody demanded.

"Yes, I'm going there alone, but-"

"It's too risky, you can't go." Woody told her.

"Woody, please don't start this again, I'm going whether you like it or not." Emily told him.

"I'm not going to let you go to some man's house who you barely know, alone." Woody told her, suddenly becoming bigger.

"You think just because you're bigger you can tell me what to do? You have no right to do that and I am not going to keep putting up with this." Emily told him.

"Maybe you're right, I may have no right to tell you what to do because I'm just a stupid toy, nothing more than cloth, stuffing and plastic, but I'm not going to let you risk getting hurt or killed because you're so sure you can take care of your self." Woody told her.

Emily hated it when he said he was nothing more than a toy, but she really didn't have time at the moment to argue the matter with him. She was about to demand that he let her leave when all of the pieces suddenly seemed to come together, the over protectiveness, what grandma had said about him being able to move on after finding out Bo had died making things complicated to the point that even she hadn't been sure what to tell him, his suddenly constantly pointing out he was a toy even though it wasn't something that he had ever done until after finding out Bo was gone. And the most plain and obvious piece of evidence that hadn't registered earlier that day, the kids at school having him tell her how pretty he thought she was and even asking her to be his girlfriend after he had told her how they could pick up on strong emotions in toys. She suddenly found herself feeling very blind and stupid for not realizing it before.

Emily walked over to stand right in front of Woody, "You may just be a toy to everyone else because they don't know the real you, but I know that you are an amazing, caring, brave, slightly over protective, wonderful man." she told him.

"You're wrong, I'm not a man I'm just a useless toy, with no purpose aside-" Woody started to say until Emily suddenly kissed him.

For a second Emily thought she had made a terrible mistake as Woody went stiff with shock, but a split second later he wrapped his arms around her and returned the kiss with a strength and passion that took her breath away.

After a long moment they stopped, Woody looked a little embarrassed and unsure of what to say or do, after taking a second to catch her breath Emily smiled at him, "You certainly don't kiss like I would have expected a toy to kiss." she said, "You're not just toy Woody, and I couldn't care less if you're made of skin and bone or cloth and stuffing, I love you."

"But Emily, it could never work-" Woody started to say.

"Do you love me?" Emily asked.

"Yes, more than anything, but-"

"Then we'll make it work." she said.

"Yes you will." a woman said and both Emily and Woody quickly turned to see who it was.

They both stood there for a long moment in stunned silence, Emily feeling a little comforted by the fact that Woody stayed at her side, one arm still wrapped around her waist as they stared at Bo who stood a at the other side of the kitchen and was also the size of human.

"How is this possible?" Woody finally asked.

"When a toy has been around at least fifty years if a situation comes up that they wish to be human then they will be given a year in which they will be able to change from toy to human at will. After that year they have to decide whether to remain human or return to being a toy. I was given permission to be the one to tell you about this." Bo told them.

"You couldn't have come sooner?" Woody asked.

"I could have, but I thought it was better that you realize that Emily would love you no matter what you are, before I gave you the easy way." Bo replied, "Now where is Jessie, she has the same choice to make."

"I'll go get her." Emily said then headed upstairs, as she did she could hear Bo talking to Woody.

"She's a good woman, I'm glad you were finally able to move on." she told him.

When Emily got to the toy room she called Jessie over, "What is it?" Jessie asked as she and Buzz walked over to her.

"You need to come downstairs." she said then suddenly realized there was one problem with what Bo had said, Jessie could become human, but it would probably be nearly thirty years before Buzz would be able to.

"Buzz I think you should come to." she said as she picked them up and carried them downstairs.

"Bo?" Buzz and Jessie exclaimed as Emily stepped into the kitchen.

"What's going on?" Jessie asked shooting a worried glance at Emily as she set them down on the table.

"Don't worry Jessie, I'm not staying." Bo said.

"Why not and why do you think Jessie wouldn't want you to stay?" Buzz asked.

"Because she's afraid I'd come between Woody and Emily." Bo replied.

"Wait, you mean they're-" Buzz started.

"Very much in love and have finally admitted it to each other." Bo said.

"Speaking of Woody, where is he?" Emily ask not seeing any sign of him in the room.

"I'm right here." Woody said coming up behind Emily and wrapping his arms around her waist.

Emily spun around to face him the moment she realized the arms that had wrapped around her were no longer just cloth and stuffing. Her heart skipped a beat as she looked up into his now human face, "You certainly make one good looking human." Emily said as she let her arms wrap around him and they stood there in each other's arms for a moment.

"Would someone please explain to me what on earth is going on here?" Buzz exclaimed causing Emily and Woody to release each other enough that they could both turn to face the table where Buzz and Jessie were.

A little while later after the situation had been explained to them Jessie said, "But if a toy has to be fifty years old to be able to become human that means Buzz couldn't become human with me."

"Yes, it does." Bo said.

"Then I'll wait until we can both be human together." Jessie told her.

"There is however a way around that rule." Bo said.

"What is it?" Jessie and Buzz both asked.

"If a toy who is over fifty years old is married to a younger toy then they can both become human together." Bo replied.

"We're going to get to be human, I'm finally going to get to ride a real horse, by my self!" Jessie exclaimed excitedly hugging Buzz.

"I have one request," Buzz said, "When I'm human could I be little taller?" he asked.

"I think that can be arranged." Bo said.

A moment later Buzz and Jessie were standing there in the middle of the kitchen and human. Jessie's clothes were still the same, but Buzz's space suit had been replaced with white pants and a white shirt with green trim.

"This is so awesome!" Jessie said then turned her attention to Buzz, wrapping her arms around his neck, "I could definitely get use to not having to bend down to kiss you." she said before kissing him.

"What about Bullseye?" Woody asked.

"Animal toys, that actually have the mind of an animal don't usually become real except occasionally in cases like this where they belong to a toy who is becoming human. What happens to him will be your choice, but there is one thing to keep in mind, if he becomes a real horse he'll have the same lifespan as a real horse, meaning he'll die long before you do." Bo replied, "There is another option, he can remain a toy, but with the option of become larger, about the size of a dog, whenever you want him to. It will allow him to have the long life of a toy while also making it easier for you to interact with him as a human."

"That sounds like the best option." Woody said.

A little while later Bo said goodbye and disappeared, "Okay as exciting as all this has been and as much as I would love to stay here and enjoy it," she said lightly kissing Woody on the cheek, "I have got to leave or I'm going to be really late for dinner."

"Emily, I don't-" Woody started until she rested a finger over his mouth.

"Let me finish telling you what's going this time, okay?" she asked, removing her finger when he nodded his head, "I'm going to Andrew's house for dinner and to meet his wife and two kids, whom he's already shown me pictures of, so I'm pretty sure he's not just making them up to get me to come to his house alone and if he is, I'll mace him and leave right away, okay?" Emily asked.

"Alright." Woody relented.

"Good, I'll see you later." Emily said giving him quick kiss.

"And I'll see you all when the horses start getting tired." Jessie said as she dragged Buzz out to the horse barn with her.

"Don't forget to make sure the saddle is good and tight so you don't fall off!" Emily called after them before leaving.

When Emily got home Woody was sitting in the kitchen playing fetch with Bullseye, "See, everything went fine." she said petting Bullseye when he ran over to her and pressed his head up into her hand.

"Alright, so I was wrong." Woody admitted as he walked over to her and pulled her into his arms.

"Have Buzz and Jessie come back yet?" Emily asked wrapping her arms around his neck.

"No, I haven't seen them since you left." Woody replied.

"I hope they're alright, it's already dark out, maybe we should go look for them." Emily said as she slipped out of Woody's arms and they headed out to the barn.

When they got to the barn they found that the horses were all there and the saddles and everything had been put away, but there was no sign of Buzz and Jessie.

"Where could they be?" Emily asked then heard movement in the upstairs of the barn where the straw and hay were stored, "One of the cat's must have had kittens up there again." Emily said before calling for Buzz and Jessie.

"Just a minute." Jessie called, fallowed by a couple minutes of movement before her head popped through the door in the ceiling, "What do you need?" she asked biting her lip to keep from grinning.

Emily took one look at her disheveled hair that was full of bits of hay, her crookedly buttoned shirt and the grin she was trying to hide and asked, "So you decided to catch Buzz up on The Talks that he missed?"

"Oh yeah, and gaining a whole new reason to be glad we were already married before we became human." Jessie replied finally giving up on trying not to grin.

"Well you two know where the spare key is if you decided to come in tonight." Emily said.

"Don't count on it." a shirtless Buzz said briefly appearing behind Jessie before pulling her away from the door.

"Well, good night." Emily called before she and Woody headed back to the house.


	15. Chapter 15

I need some help, I know how Woody, Buzz, and Jessie's year of being able to change from human to toy is going to end, but other than that all I have planned is one little scene that probably won't even fill one page. I need ideas and suggestions of stuff to fill the next year of their lives, so let me know if you have any ideas or anything you want to see happen.

* * *

The next few weeks flew by as everyone got use to Woody, Jessie and Buzz being able to become human.

"Why don't you come to work with me today, it's been too cold for the kids to go out for a couple of weeks now, the kids are getting tired of being inside and it's going to be cold again today." Emily suggested after checking the weather forecast.

"Do you really think one more toy is going to make that much of a difference?" Woody asked glancing at the group of toys who were already gathered in a box ready to go with Emily.

Emily walked over to him and wrapped her arms around his neck, "I was thinking more like having a handsome cowboy come to tell them stories." she said smiling at him.

"Wouldn't they recognize me?" Woody asked.

"They see people dressed up as cartoon or toy characters all the time at parades and parties, they'd never realize it was really you." Emily said.

"How would we get me there? I can't change in front of anyone else and I can't just wait around the school all day." Woody pointed out.

"The janitors closet is just down the hall from my room, I'll take you in there to change and I let you know when the coast is clear to come out." Emily told him.

"Are you really sure about this?" Woody asked.

"I'm really sure that if I have to deal with more kids starting fights because they're getting cabin fever from being inside too long, I'll go crazy. And I'm sure it'll be fine." Emily replied.

"Oh alright, I'll come then." Woody relented.

Emily grinned at him and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek then started to move away to get her stuff ready to go, until Woody caught her and pulled her back to him, "I'm going to spend most of the day stuck in your purse and all I get is a kiss on the cheek?" he asked.

Emily grinned and kissed him again, this time much longer and more passionate, when she finally pulled back she asked, "Was that better?"

"Much better." Woody replied, smiling.

Everything went according to Emily's plan and she sat at her desk enjoying the lack of arguing children and listening to the story Woody was telling the kids.

He was sitting on the floor surrounded not only by the kids from Emily's class, but also most of the kids from the first grade class as well, "Who is this?" Andrew asked as he and the last two kids who had still been in his room came over.

"My boyfriend, I told him how bored the kids were getting and he agreed to come in and help keep them entertained for a while." Emily replied.

"He's certainly doing a good job, it's the first time in three days that I think we might get through recess without the kids fighting." Andrew said, "What's his name, he looks familiar."

"Woody Pride, he probably just looks familiar because he's dressed up as one of the toys I sometimes bring with me for the kids to play with. We thought it would make it more fun for them." Emily told him.

"Maybe that's it, did you bring the toy with you today?" Andrew asked.

"No, it's kind of old and bored kids tend to be rougher on toys so I decided to leave it at home today." Emily replied.

"Makes sense." Andrew said before they both fell silent listening to Woody tell his story.

"We were pinned down by the monkeys, with no way to escape as the evil Dr. Pork Chop aimed his massive gun at us. That's when I realized the gun was the ships weakness, with only seconds to spare I told Buzz to shoot his laser at my badge, he thought it would kill me, but I insisted and he finally did. The laser bounced off of my badge and straight into the gun, beginning a chain reaction of explosions that destroyed the space ship. With their master defeated the monkeys fled then Jessie, Buzz and I arrested the criminals and locked them up, putting an end to their rein of terror." Woody told them.

The kids all cheered and clapped before going to play.

"Thank you so much for keeping them distracted." Emily said giving Woody a quick kiss on the cheek when he walked over to her, "Woody, this is Andrew, the first grade teacher, Andrew, my boyfriend Woody." she introduced.

"Where on earth did you come up with that story?" Andrew asked.

"I- um, I just made it up." Woody replied looking shocked and a little nervous.

"What about the names you used in it, Dr. Pork Chop, one eyed Bart-" Andrew was cut off as four kids came over and grabbed Woody's arms and started to drag him off while making monkey noises.

"Do you know where he came up with the names?" Andrew asked.

"No, why?" Emily lied.

"When I was a kid I had toys that I would name that when I played with them, even the story he told seems familiar." Andrew told her.

"I'm sure it's just a coincidence." Emily told him beginning to understand why Woody had looked so shocked. She jumped as there was a loud crash and looked up to find Woody pinned on the ground and being tickled by half a dozen kids, "I wonder who will run out of energy first, Woody or the kids." Emily said then looked over at Andrew and realized his face had gone pale and he was staring at Woody, or more accurately at the bottom of Woody's boot.

"Andrew, are you okay?" Emily asked.

"I- what- why is there a name on the bottom of his boot?" Andrew asked then suddenly stepped closer to Emily's desk and picked up Bullseye who had been left sitting there by one of the kids and looked at the bottoms of his feet then went after the kids who were playing with Buzz and Jessie and asked them for them then checked their feet and looked back at Woody, "What is going on here?" he asked.

"Did you by any chance go by Andy when you were a kid?" Emily asked.

"Yes and these were my toys," he said glancing back at Woody then back at Emily, "What is going on, why is my name on the bottom of his boot?"

"He wanted to go as toy accurate as possible for the kids." Emily said although from as pale as his face had gotten she didn't really think he would buy it.

"You're not really crazy enough to expect me to believe that are you?" Andrew asked.

"It seems like a perfectly rational explanation to me." Emily replied.

"It doesn't explain how he knew names that only I and possibly my sister and mother could have known." Andrew said.

Emily groaned then called to Woody, "Keep an eye on the kids I'll be right back." then she grabbed Andrew's arm and lead him into his classroom.

She shut the door then turned to face Andrew, "You have to swear that you will never, ever tell anyone else what I'm about to tell you." she told him.

"Fine, I promise. What are you, some type of witch who decided to bring one of my old toys to life to entertain the kids?" he asked.

"You always did have a wild imagination." Jessie said as she stood up on the desk where Andrew had set her and Buzz.

Andrew jumped back, stumbled over his own feet, fell to the floor and just sat there staring at them in shock, "You're alive too?" he said.

"Yes, most toys are, humans just aren't supposed to know that." Jessie said as she jumped off of the desk, becoming human as soon as she hit the floor and holding out a hand to help Andrew up.

"Can they all become human too?" Andrew asked as he hesitantly took Jessie's hand and she pulled him up.

"No, once a toy hits fifty if they really want to become human they get one year that they can change back and forth then at the end of that year they have to decide if they want to remain human or go back to being a normal toy. Woody, Buzz and I are a few weeks into our year of being able to change back and forth." Jessie explained.

"So that guy in the other room, that really is the same Woody who was my toy when I was a kid?" Andrew asked.

"Yep." Jessie replied.

Andrew shook his head, "This is crazy, this is-" he stopped and looked at Emily, "Wait a minute you're-" he was cut off as the bell rang signaling the end of recess.

"We can discus this more later, if you're not busy after work you can stop at my place, I'm sure Woody will want to talk to you. Just don't say anything about this to anyone else." Emily told him as she picked up Buzz and Jessie who had already returned to being toys then headed back to her classroom.

"Not like anyone would believe me anyways." Andrew said.

As soon as Emily got to her car after school that day everyone started asking questions, "Was that Andy I saw with you?" Mrs. Potato Head asked.

"Where did you go with him?" Mr. Potato Head asked.

"Did he recognize us?" Slinky asked.

"What did you tell him?" Woody asked as he climbed out of Emily's purse.

"We told him the truth, told him not to tell anyone and to come out to my house if he wanted any further explanations." Emily replied.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Hamm asked.

"She didn't have much of a choice, he wasn't buying any of the other explanations she came up with." Jessie said.

"Anyways. This is Andy we're talking about, I'm sure everything will be fine." Buzz said.

"I hope you're right, because he's right behind us." Woody said peeking over the back of the seat.

Once they stopped in Emily's driveway Andrew was at her car door before she could even get out, "Okay, so my toys come to life, at least three of them can become human and you're dating Woody?"

"Yes, yes it's only the three of them and yes." Emily replied as she got out of the car then lead him inside, setting the box of toys on the kitchen table.

"Oh you've grown up so much since the last time we saw you." Mrs. Potato Head said.

"I knew after that last playtime with Bonnie that you would be perfect to work with kids." Slinky said.

"This is crazy, it's not possible." Andrew said staring at the toys as they climbed out of the box.

"It's not impossible and you'll get use to the craziness, actually if you hang out with them too much you'll get to the point where it seems strange when you're around toys who don't talk around you." Emily told him.

"It's good to see you again." Woody told Andrew as he, Buzz and Jessie became human.

"Uh, good to see you too." Andrew said then looked back to Emily, "You really get use to this?"

"Well it might be a little easier finding out they're alive and then finding out they can become human later on, but, yeah, you'll get use to it eventually." Emily told him.

"How did you find out about all this?" Andrew asked.

"Oh you know Woody, he can't resist saving a damsel in distress." Jessie said.

"You might want to sit down, this could take a while." Emily said.

"and Emily thought none of the kids would realize that I was really the same toy they had been playing with, so I agreed to come along today. She was right about the kids, none of us ever thought about anyone else noticing though." Woody finished quite a while later.

"This is amazing, everything, not just you all being alive, but everything you've done. It's unbelievable." Andrew said.

"That's nothing, you should hear what they did while you still had them or at least thought you had them." Emily said.

"Okay, you've got me even more curious now, would it be too much of an inconvenience if I asked to hear more?" Andrew asked.

"Not at all." Emily replied.

"Great." he said before pulling out his cell phone, "Hi honey, I'm going to be late getting home," he said hesitated a second, glanced up at the toys then smiled, "I ran into some old friends and really want to do some catching up with them. Okay, love you too, bye." Andrew said before hanging up, "Alright, on with the story."

"Wow, I thought I came up with crazy adventures for you guys and all the while you were getting to go on real adventures more exciting than I ever could have imagined. I can't believe everything you guys went through to get back to me and then I just gave you away." Andrew said after they finished telling him everything.

"Kids grow up, all toys know the day will come when their child will probably decide to get rid of them, it's just the way things are. We were all happy with Bonnie and now we have a safe home where we know we'll all be able to stay together for a good long time. I don't think things could have worked out any better for us." Woody said briefly glancing at Emily.

Andrew smiled, "Yeah, nothing beats finding the woman of your dreams." he said.

"Nope, nothing could be better than that." Woody said then asked, "So you're married and have kids of your own now?"

"Yes, my son, Charles is seven and my daughter Courtney is five, you have to meet them and my wife Diane sometime." Andrew said.

"I'd like that." Woody said.

"We all would love to meet them." Buzz said.

"Yeah, although some us may not be able to meet them the way Buzz, Jessie and Woody can, but maybe you could get together here sometime, so they can play with us." Mrs. Potato Head suggested.

"I'll discus it with Diane tonight then we can see what we can work out." Andrew said, "If this is all alright with you of course." he said to Emily.

"Of course, I wouldn't mind at all." Emily replied.

"Great. Well I should get home before it get's too late, I'll talk to you at work tomorrow." Andrew said.

"Okay, see you tomorrow." Emily said.

Once Andrew was gone Woody wrapped his arms around Emily, "You know, I'm really glad you convinced me to go to work with you today." he told her


	16. Chapter 16

It's short, but at least you know I haven't abandoned the story, plus I'm looking for some opinions from my readers for the next chapter. I can't decide whether or not to have Andy's wife find out about the toys being alive. So what do you think, should she find out?

* * *

A couple of weeks later Emily, Woody, Jessie and Buzz had made plans to have Andy and his family over for dinner and were just leaving the grocery store after getting everything they would need when Woody suddenly froze.

"What is it?" Buzz asked.

"It can't be the same one, could it?" Woody said pointing to a trash truck parked at the end of the parking lot.

Tied to the front of the truck was a threadbare, bug encrusted Lotso as well as the remains of what might have been a few other old stuffed toys that had been reduced to scraps.

"Would serve him right if it is," Buzz replied.

"No, no toy deserves a fate like that, what he did happened years ago and from the looks of it he's been paying for it for a long time," Woody said as they put the groceries in the car then, glancing around to make sure the drivers weren't around he walked over to the truck. Pulling out a pocket knife he quickly cut the strings that held Lotso to the truck then walked back to the car where Emily was waiting with a paper grocery bag she had emptied.

"You're not getting those bug guts all over the inside of my car," she told him as she held the bag open and he dropped Lotso into it.

"What are you going to do with him now?" Buzz asked once Woody had gotten into the car.

"Yeah, after what he was going to let happen to us, even if it was years ago, we can't just bring him home with us, I doubt the others are going to be as forgiving as you are," Jessie pointed out.

"You don't even know for sure yet that it is the same Lotso," Emily pointed out.

"We'll just have to find out," Woody said.

A little while later Emily pulled off the road near a wooded area and took the bag Lotso was in from Woody. After they had all returned to their toy forms she set them on the ground beside the car and carefully dumped Lotso out of the bag then got back into the car.

"It can't be, you were destroyed, I saw you fall into the incinerator," Lotso said.

"We're not that easily disposed of," Jessie said.

"So it is him, it was your idea to rescue him, now what do we do with him?" Buzz asked Woody.

"We could just put him back where we found him," Jessie suggested.

"No! Please anything but that," Lotso begged.

"I know we can't take him home with us after everything he's done, but I'm not sure what to do with him," Woody said.

Emily leaned out of the window of the car and said, "You've already done more to help him than he ever did for you, why not just leave him here. It may not be much of a life, but like he said, anything would be better than being stuck to the front of that truck and the condition he's in no one would ever let their kids play with him, so there aren't many options."

"The human knows you're alive?" Lotso asked in shock.

"Yes, and I think her idea is the only one that is going to work, unless you'd rather go back to the truck," Woody told him.

"Fine, anything is better than that," Lotso quickly agreed.

"Anyone around?" Woody asked Emily.

"Nope, no one in sight," Emily replied.

A moment later Woody, Jessie and Buzz had all become human again and Lotso was staring up at them in shock, "How did you do that?" he asked.

"Survive to fifty and you might find out someday if you really deserve to," Buzz said as they all got back into the car.

"Do you think he'll be alright?" Emily asked as they drove away.

"After what he put us through and leaving us to die, I'm having a really hard time caring what happens to him. I can't believe you actually helped him," Buzz said to Woody.

"I know, but it didn't seem right to just leave him there, it would have made us no better than him. Anyways we probably won't see him again and he should be fine out there, with no humans around he should be able to take care of himself," Woody said.


End file.
